Blinding Darkness
by Tillthewheelsfalloff
Summary: Steve meets a girl and promptly falls in love. He is, however, an Avenger, so it was never going to be easy. Especially as an old enemy is out to throw an almighty spanner in the works, and nobody knows what's real and what's not. Steve/OC
1. Steve meets a girl

**AN: Writing this with Catherss and this is also on Archive Of Our Own, using the same pen-name.**  
**Also the Evie Rae used in this has a completely different back story, the first few chapters will be Steve and Evie will be getting to know each other and then it'll pick up more. This is an X-men crossover but the X-men won't turn up for quite a while so we didn't bother to put it as a crossover.  
********I'll try and continue with the Sherlock/OC series soon.**

"Fantastic book."

Steve looked up, moderately surprised, at the voice to see a tall woman with dark brown hair and brown eyes stood in front of him grinning; she was wearing a badge to signify that she worked here. Steve looked at his book momentarily forgetting what he was reading.

"Yeah, it looks really good. I've not read much of it, though." Steve answered carefully, not used to random women coming to talk to him unless they were fans and would squeal loud enough to give him a headache and ask for his autograph. Steve put a book mark in the book, _Private Peaceful_, and closed it, to show he was listening.

"What part are you up to?"

"Um, Grandma Wolf has just moved in."

"You like books set in the war?" she asked with genuine interest.

"Yeah." Steve shrugged and glanced around, vaguely wondering why she had come to talk to him.

She smiled to herself as she walked away holding up a finger to signify she'd be back in a moment, which she did coming back holding two books in her hands, "Well, I'll recommend these: _Boy in the Striped Pyjamas_ and _War Horse_." she handed both the books to him and Steve read the blurbs. "Though, _Boy in the Striped Pyjamas_ isn't actually about a soldier, but it's good all the same."

"Yeah... they sound really good." Steve stated, "Thank you." He looked back up at her and suddenly noticed how attractive she was and how she was looking at him with bright beautiful chocolate eyes. He rubbed the back of his neck. Was it that warm before? "So – um...what's your name?"

She grinned, noticing his sudden discomfort with amusement but sat down on the chair beside him hoping to make him feel calmer without her towering over him, "I'm Evie Rae. You?"

"Captain Steve Rodgers." Steve mentally cursed as he realised he put 'Captain' at the front of his name automatically.

"Captain? You're a Captain?" Steve opened his mouth to answer when Evie's eyes widened and she stood up again out of shock more than anything else,

"_Captain Steve Rogers_?! You're _Captain America_?!"

"Uh...yes?"

"No_ way_!" Evie laughed and then glared across the rows as she heard someone shush her. "This is...no wonder you like war books..." Evie's eyes widened, "Sorry, I don't mean to be rude...just..."

"It's fine." Steve smiling at her obvious excitement and sudden nervousness.

"I was a..._huge_ fan of you when I was younger and now when I heard you were found in the ice..._wow_!" Evie giggled again, "I wanted to come see you but civilians weren't allowed and there was a huge line, my aunt tried as well but nobody believed her except some dude with an eye-patch...I have all the comics and cards and all the collectables and I sound like such a stalker! Please feel to shut me up at any time."

Steve chuckled, "It's nice to meet you Evie. Is that short for anything?" He asked mostly to change the subject but he was also curious.

"Short for Evelyn. But nobody calls me that except my aunt."

"Evelyn. That's a beautiful name."

"Thank you. So is Steve." Evie frowned suddenly blushing at her stupid comment, and Steve laughed glad that for once that he wasn't the only nervous person.

"Thank you I think."

"God, I should shut up before I embarrass myself further."

"I think you're doing ok. Better than I normally do when meeting a beautiful woman." Steve's eyes widened, cursing himself again. Why did this _always _happen?

Evie giggled almost hysterically, "Thank you Cap'n."

"Please, call me Steve." Steve added struggling to fight the urge to stutter.

"Steve." Evie agreed.

"So, do you enjoy books set during the war too?" Steve asked motioning to the books that she had recommended. They both relaxed at the subject.

"Yeah, as said I'm a huge fan of you...my aunt knew you, and that made me want to find out more about the wars so...I did. Loads of these books, especially Michael Morpurgo, are really good and of course non-fiction. Like a book that just came out, _24 Hour Trench _or something, they used official manuals and diaries to build a real trench system and live in it for 24 hours, recreating the frontline daily existence. It's really amazing, the library hasn't got it yet 'cause its new but I could lend you my copy?"

Steve gawked for a minute before deciding to latch onto the end of the sudden babble not sure how to reply to the rest of it. "That would be very kind of you."

Evie shrugged, "No trouble, I'll uh...bring it into work and you can come collect it whenever you want."

"Thank you." _'Ask her out you idiot!'_ A voice that sounded surprisingly like Bucky's yelled and Steve wanted to but _how? _"I went to France last month," he stated mentally cursing when he didn't manage to ask her out, "To visit the graves from the Battle of the Somme with Natasha."

Evie nodded slowly, "I've been there. It's..._touching_ would be the only word I can use." Steve took a deep shaking breath as he nodded, some unwanted memories coming back to him. "If you don't mind me asking...what was it like? The war?"

"I remember the war very differently to most people, but the things I did see..." he trailed off, "That's one of the reasons I quite like reading these books, seeing how the war was from the view of others." It was the easiest answer he could give and Evie accepted that. They spoke a bit longer about various books they've read from historical to fantasy to sci-fi including Harry Potter. He told her that when he had first read the third book's title he had thought it was Alcatraz, not Askaban. They laughed at that. Then -

_**'Who's strong and brave, here to save the American Way?  
Who vows to fight like a man for what's right night and day?  
Who will campaign door-to-door for America,  
Carry the flag shore to shore for America,  
From Hoboken to Spokane,  
The Star Spangled Man with a Plan!'  
**_

Steve blushed deeply as the song came out extremely loudly and he fumbled around for his phone murmuring an apology to Evie who couldn't help but giggle loudly and a few people glanced around at the noise, "Hello?" Steve answered.

**"Where are you?" **Tony asked immediately.

"In the library. Why?"

**"Good. Hulk's smashing his floor. Has been for ages and Clint's not here."** He sounded urgent.

"Dammit Tony," Steve glanced at Evie as she made a little squeak at the name. "**You should know by now when he's getting irritated!"** he stood up and pulled his jacket on.

**"Wasn't me!" **Tony attempted but Steve rolled his eyes.

"I'll be there soon as possible. Call me if he de-Hulks before I get there."

**"I will. Ow! Bruce!"** Tony yelled as Steve pocketed his phone and glanced at Evie who was grinning widely and looking curious at the same time.

"Star Spangled Man with a Plan?"

"What? Oh, my ringtone. Tony changed it. He didn't tell me how to change it back, and not even Bruce would help me." he frowned looked so rejected Evie had to resist the urge to hug him.

She laughed lightly, "I can help if you want?"

"That would be great...but right now I've got to get going, uh..." Steve hesitated blushing again, but he could almost hear Bucky's voice urging him on in his head _'If you don't ask her I will!'_, "How about lunch tomorrow? There's a nice café just across the road?"

Evie's eyes widened almost comically and she giggled slightly hysterically, "That would be _incredible_! I mean - I'd really like that - it would be fun – I, uh..."

"Meet at 1?" Steve asked understanding her nervousness it was only due to Natasha's and Peppers influence that Steve managed to keep calm.

"Yeah." Evie grinned at him as he stood up. "I'll sort out those books for you?"

Steve rose an eyebrow before glancing down at the books he was still holding. "Oh right. Please. Thank you."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

He got back to the tower in under 10 minutes, to find Bruce's floor almost completely destroyed but the Hulk was still smashing; he couldn't leave the floor since Tony had it Hulk proofed. It didn't take Steve too long to calm him down since Hulk would only listen to him and Clint for some reason.

But Steve couldn't stop thinking about her. She was beautiful and funny and interesting, and despite her initial excitement at realising it was him, she didn't treat him differently, like he was about to break like some of the agents from S.H.I.E.L.D did, nor like a celebrity like the annoying fans did.

Steve couldn't help but feel guilty as he thought of Peggy but as Tony had stated many a time, it's time to move on, Peggy would want him to be happy.

Once the film was over Steve made his way upstairs to his floor where he found himself absent-mindedly drawing Evie from memory.

Evie spent the rest of the day walking on air, she greeting everyone she spoke to with a huge grin and her co-workers started to worry that she was on happy-drugs.

She soon got home and went straight onto her computer ignoring her room-mates.

_Greetings, my 79 followers. (And thanks the ten who've followed me since last week – you guys are amazing!)  
You would never guess who I bumped into at work today.  
THE CAPTAIN AMERICA.  
Yes, you heard me right.  
STEVE HOT AS HELL RODGERS  
And I fangirled all over him, too! I said his name was beautiful, after he said mine was. I am an actual idiot!  
He was looking at a book when I spotted him. First I thought he was just a look-a-like. But then he introduced himself as CAPTAIN STEVE RODGERS!  
It was kinda adorable, too, because he was looking at Private Peaceful. (Don't worry dear readers! I also recommended Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' and War Horse) He said that he liked war books.  
He's actually a pretty sweet guy. After he apparently noticed I was a woman he suddenly got all nervous and adorable. For someone who can battle Nazi's and giant monsters he's pretty shy. After I made a complete fool out of my self over the name thing, he said, (And I quote), "I think you're doing ok. Better than I normally do when meeting a beautiful woman." Then he went and blushed and he looked like 15 year old boy asking his crush out!  
I asked him about the war. He said that he remembered it very differently from the other soldiers, and that he was reading the books to try and get an idea of what it was like for most.  
We chatted for a while (he said that he'd read the Harry Potter books, and that he liked them a lot because there wasn't anything modern in them. When I asked if he'd seen the films, he said that Natasha had lent him the first three, but he fell asleep halfway through the first one. Only later did I realise who Natasha must have been)  
… and then his phone went off – his ring tone is 'Star Spangled Man with a Plan'! He later explained that 'Tony did that. He didn't tell me how to change it back, and not even Bruce would help me get it back.' And he looked proper rejected!  
I fangirled. Completely lost it. (Not that I had it in any point in the conversation). I'd forgotten that the charming, sweet guy in front of me was an Avenger. He had a conversation to TONY STARK. Yes THE Tony Stark Genius Billionaire Iron Man! (At least he said Tony's name) and said something about poking someone. I heard Iron Man yell 'Hulk' through the phone so I assume Bruce Banner had Hulked out!  
__And then…  
__AND THEN…  
__He asked me out for coffee!  
__I am actually screaming as I write!__  
__Coffee! With Captain America!  
__I will tell you more at a later time, followers! I need to go to bed now!_

Evie squealed slightly as she sent the blog, she couldn't believe it was actually true. It wasn't long before she started getting replies from some of her readers which she tried to reply to.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Steve couldn't sleep, he was so excited but also nervous, eventually he managed to drift off into a restless nerve filled sleep where he found himself dreaming about going to the date and suddenly he was back to his old self without the serum and Evie didn't want to know him so she just left, walked away from him and he tried to follow her but had an asthma attack and couldn't breathe, she kept saying 'Do you think any girl would want to know you like this?'

When he woke at 6:30 as usual the first thing he did was check he wasn't his old self and when he wasn't he lay back in absolute relief. He was tired but went for his usual run greeting the people he usually did and stopping at the nearest Café for a quick coffee and a chat with Beth the woman he had apparently saved during the battle 5 months ago, she was really nice and was contently flirting but she wasn't really Steve's type.

When he got back it was 8am and Steve would spend an hour cleaning up last night's dinner dishes and then start making breakfast which varied depending on his mood. Fruit salad today.

Bruce woke up first using at 8:30 he was always the most grateful telling Steve he didn't have to make breakfast every morning but Steve would tell him it was fine and he quite enjoyed it. Bruce would then put coffee on for everyone. Then Natasha and Clint would usually wake up around 9 O'clock and eat the breakfast silently. They wouldn't say a single word until they had food and coffee in their system unless there was an emergency. Half way through the agents eating breakfast Pepper would wake soon followed by a Zombie-fyed Tony. Pepper would eat the breakfast and get into a chat with Bruce or Steve about something. Tony would drink exactly 2.5 mugs of coffee before he'd speak and then eat breakfast and start talking science with Bruce. Lastly Thor would come in at _exactly_9:13 every morning, always too cheerful for any sane person in the morning, put pop-tarts on and ate the leftovers of whatever Steve had made and the pop-tarts while talking casually with anyone that was in a chatting mood.

This morning was no different, Steve was observing the group, Tony and Bruce were talking about school tablets or something apparently they were calling it the 'Stark Banner'. Pepper and Thor were discussing design ideas for the new Quinjet Tony had bought for the Avengers, and Clint and Natasha were talking about going for a run and training in the park for once instead of the training rooms.

Everyone wasn't usually here, so today was a rare day. Natasha, while being an Avenger was also sill a S.H.I.E.L.D agent and still did jobs for them, as did Clint. Bruce sometimes went away to developing countries to help out with extra funding from Tony. Thor would often go to visit his girlfriend and was sometimes summoned back to Asgard. Only Steve, Tony and Pepper lived full time.

Steve smiled at his strange little family as he left the room to let them do the dishwasher as he did every morning and sat down in his room to read War Horse.

It was 12 O'clock when he was dragged out of his thoughts by JARVIS reminding him to check his virtual farm on Facebook. Bruce and Clint had showed him how to use it. He had been getting a lot better with technology but he did struggle with a lot. Especially when trying to use a phone, he could call and answer, occasionally text but that was it. How was he supposed to play games or do anything else on a tiny little telephone? He was ok with TV's but the first time he saw one he had stared for _hours_, how did they get everything on it with 'Cable' so Steve asked Tony to explain it, Tony had made no sense so he asked Bruce and it just about made sense.

Clint had mentioned that living in Stark Towers was probably the worst place he could be after living in a world with barely any proper technology as Stark Towers was probably _the most_ modern place in the _entire_ modern world.

Steve smiled as he opened his laptop, Bruce and Clint had spent hours with him teaching him how to use it and made him various account, E-mail, Facebook, twitter and Tumblr. He barely used his e-mail, only played with the farm on Facebook and didn't really understand the other two especially when he was asked to follow people, he felt like a stalker. After he checked his farm he realised he needed to get ready to go.

But what should he wear? What should that talk about? He didn't know what to do on a date!

So he decided to ask for advice. He knew exactly who to ask.

Natasha Romanov.

She was a spy so she wouldn't tell anyone if he asked her not to, and she's a woman so she'd know what to do. He hoped. He found her on her floor with her back to him, he could see that she was typing a mission report or something on her laptop, "Hello Steve." she greeted without looking at him. Steve didn't bother to ask how she knew it was him.

"Hey 'Tasha,"

"What's up?"

"I uh...need your advice."

Natasha closed her laptop and turned around on her chair to face him with a raised eyebrow. She motioned to the sofa for him to sit down and she moved to sit beside him making him feel slightly nervous. "What about?"

Steve hesitated, should he really ask her? She obviously knew it was something he was really worried about judging by her reaction when he asked. She was staring at him patiently and Steve sighed and gave in, "I'm meeting a woman soon..."

Natasha's eye widened slightly, the most reaction she'd ever give to any form of shock, "Ah."

"What should I do? It is a date? What should I wear? How should I act? Sh-"

Natasha placed her hand over his mouth successfully shutting him up, "Casual clothes. Thing's you'd normally wear, jeans and a shirt. It'll look better if you un-tuck it but it's more..._you_when you tuck it in so that doesn't matter. I'm assuming you asked her for lunch right?" Steve nodded mutely her hand still over his mouth, "Then she's going to assume it's a date and it's obvious you want it to be a date. So you talk, what do you have in common?"

"Bmmoooks." he answered muffled.

"Books? Right start with that. Then asked her about herself, make sure to do that and just talk about whatever comes up. Lastly _pay_. Make sure you pay, even when she says it's fine she'll pay her side don't let her ok?" Steve nodded again and Natasha allowed the corners of her mouth to twitch in a smile as she released his mouth, "What time are you meeting her?"

"One."

"Go get changed then. Come back here for me to check it out before you leave."

Steve nodded and went back to his room putting on the black jeans that Tony had bought him and a light red and white checker shirt. He started to tuck it in before changing his mind and un-tucked it. He pulled on his browncoat and went back to Natasha's floor who rose an eyebrow and motioned for him to spin around.

"_Mm_. You look good."

Steve blushed at the appreciative tone, "Thank you."

"One last thing, if the date goes well kiss her. Whether that's on the lips or cheek. Go get her Captain Tightpants." Steve rose an eyebrow at the nickname but didn't comment as he smiled gratefully at her help.

"I'll uh be back later."

"I'm assuming I'm not to tell the others?"

"Not just yet please?"

"Of course," Natasha motioned for him to get into the elevator. She wished him good luck.

He would need it.

20 minutes later he walked into the café and sat down ordering himself a coffee, a few minutes later the door opened and Steve glanced over to see Evie walking in. He stood up and greeted her; she was wearing a pair of tights with denim shorts over the top and a cream coloured shirt with a belt around the middle. "Hello," she greeted nervously.

"Hello," he greeted just as nervously, "You look stunning." he pulled her chair out and when she sat down he pushed her in lightly and she was grinning widely at his chivalry and blushed at his complement.

"Thank you. You look good too."

Steve smiled shyly and sat down, "Uh...nice morning?"

"Yes. It's been ok." truthfully she had spent hours getting changed about 20 times and spent over an hour on her make-up that would usually take less than 20 minutes. "Yours?"

"Yeah, I read War Horse."

"Oh? What did you think?"

"It was fantastic. I mean, following a horse's journey through the war, not something you see often but it was so real but it does show a very real feeling of the war."

"Did you ever have a horse?"

Steve's answer was interrupted by the waitress coming over, "Are you ready to order?"

Steve looked at Evie, "Evelyn? Are you?"

"Uh no sorry," she smiled apologetically but the waitress didn't notice as she just stared at Steve.

"Give us a few minutes please." he told the waitress politely but looked back at Evie oblivious to the looks he was getting from the waitress.

"Sure, you're Captain America right?"

"Uh...yeah I am." Steve nodded.

"Could I have an autograph?"

"Sure," she handed Steve a napkin and a pen and he quickly wrote down his autograph.

"Awesome, thanks." Steve nodded with a smile and the waitress walked away.

"I'm sorry, what were you saying?"

"Horse?"

"Oh right, no. I've never ridden a horse in my life."

"Really?"

"Really." Steve nodded, "Before the serum I physically couldn't, since then haven't had the chance. Have you?"

"I ride often. I should take you one day, or I mean you should go one day at least."

"That'd be fun." Steve agreed with a shy smile and Evie laughed nervously. "Should we uh...order?"

Evie nodded and looked down at her menu, "Egg and chips?" she said after a moment.

"Sounds good. I'll have the same."

They ordered and Steve looked at Evie, "So uh...what do you enjoy? Hobbies and the like?

"Uh reading, writing, horse riding..." Evie shrugged, "What about you?"

"I enjoy reading and drawing I guess."

"You draw?"

"Yeah."

"Any good?"

Steve shrugged, "People say so. I guess."

"I'd love to see."

"I'll have to show you at some point. Do you draw?"

"Stick figures." Evie laughed, "I've drawn Pikachu once."

"Pikachu?"

"From Pokémon? You need to watch that!"

"Pokémon? Never heard of it."

Evie gasped, "You poor man."

"I'll have to watch it I guess."

Evie nodded, "I have all the trading cards. Took me most of my life but I have at least one of each."

"As well as Captain America cards?" Steve asked teasingly relaxing as the conversation flowed easily.

Evie blushed, "Yeah...I've got them all, vintage." Steve swallowed sadly as he remembered Coulson saying that and he never got the chance to sign them.

"Would you like me to sign them?" he asked hoping that he didn't sound too vain. Most people wanted him to, anyways, and judging by Evie's now wide excited eyes and the trouble she had in swallowed the sip of tea she took, he guess it was a good idea to ask.

"That would be quite...amazing." Evie answered breathlessly. "Thank you." Steve nodded but their food came before he could say anything else. "So uh, what are the other Avengers like?"

"Tony is...well Tony Stark..." Steve shrugged unsure of how to describe Tony, "Less of a uh...playboy I think is the term he used, than he used to be because of Pepper. Bruce is less shy than he was at the beginning and a bit of a prankster he'll never admit to that though. Thor is quite amusing and loud. He is also not stupid as the media seems to believe. Clint and Natasha are terrifying." Evie laughed at that description. "Do you live on your own or...?"

"With a couple of friends. Sherlock and Mycroft, yes their parents are huge fans of the book. And Irene."

"Also got parents fans of the book?"

Evie laughed, "No but they bonded over it. I've been tempted to change my name to Mary just to join in."

Steve laughed, "I couldn't imagine that. Evelyn suits you."

Evie grinned wider vaguely aware she must looked slightly crazy with such a wide grin but didn't care, "I take it you've read the books?"

"Yeah, I read them all when I was younger,"

"They are quite fantastic, what's your favourite?"

"I'd say _The Final Problem_ but also_ The_ _Return of Sherlock Holmes_."

"Oh yes! So sad, there's a TV series written by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss that's set in modern day London. There's also Elementary, but… that's not as good. It's set in New York, and Watson is a woman."

"A… woman? How have they pulled that off?" he asked.

"She's called Joan, and she's Asian. She's his sober companion, after he got off drugs."

"Huh…"

"Well, I'd recommend Sherlock any day. It's better. Elementary is just a copy."

"Oh?"

"Sherlock came first. Anyways, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss are both amazing writers anyways. Moffat wrote some episodes of Doctor Who. It's a British thing, so it came to America a few months ago. I'll have to lend you the DVDs."

"How much things am I watching, reading or doing now?" Steve asked amused and Evie laughed.

"Sorry."

"It's ok. Maybe I can surprise Tony when I know about something he mentions."

They laughed and then talked for another hour before Evie glanced at the time. "I'm really sorry but I should get going, my break was over like half an hour ago."

"No it's fine. I should get going to." he called a waitress over, "Can we have the bill please?"

"Of course."

She came back a moment later and Evie pulled out her purse at the same time as Steve got his wallet, "How much?" Evie asked and Steve shook his head.

"On me."

"No, I've got-"

"It's fine." Steve put the right amount and a tip down.

"Thank you."

Steve nodded and gestured towards the door calling a thank you to the waitress. "It was really nice to see you today Evelyn."

"And you Steve."

Steve hesitated before bending down and gave her a quick peck on the lips before pulling away and smiled at her, it was obvious she was really struggling not to squeal but she was definitely grinning crazily. "Here," he grab a note of paper from his pocket and wrote down his mobile number handing it to her, "Uh, I can't promise I'll answer because I'm really bad with making sure it's charged but I'll try."

Evie grinned at that and wrote down her own number, "We'll talk soon?"

"Definitely."

They went their separate ways both grinning as hard as each other. Almost bouncing as they walked.

Steve couldn't believe it. Kissing Evie...even just a peck was amazing. He couldn't wait to see her again.

Evie was once again walking on air. She had just been on a date with _Captain America_! He was a gentlemanly as she had heard but also funny and easy to talk to. He was definitely shy but managed to get over it long enough to talk calmly to her.

She got home and told her roommates immediately who all wanted to meet him and of course, had to write another entry on her blog.

_Hello, my dear followers! As I promised, I will now expand... on the date! Yes, the date!  
__It started out a little awkwardly (I think Steve's never dated someone before, or at least never had to go through the whole system of dating someone). He said he read War Horse and enjoyed it. A waitress came over, and asked us if we were ready to order (And did a fair bit of staring at Steve! He didn't notice which I should NOT be this happy over but I am!), and Steve called me by Evelyn! Gosh, he's so sweet.  
__I asked if he'd ever ridden a horse in his life, and he said no, so I invited him over to ride with me (And all my followers from the horse obsession, I will be posting more photos of Pokey jumping soon!). He said he was good at drawing, and then he said he'd never seen Pokémon! He is a deprived man. (But he has read Sherlock Holmes, so I am a happy camper.)  
__Conversation started getting easier after that, and we discussed the rest of the Avengers. (He called Clint and Natasha, and I quote, 'Terrifying'! and that's saying a lot coming from a Super solider!  
__Steve insisted on paying - and then BAM! He kissed me! On the lips! For such a shy guy, that was a pretty big move! (Even if nothing comes of this, at least I will be able to say that I have met, talked to and kissed Captain America!)  
__I should get going now my dear readers but if I see him again (Which I REALLY hope I do) I will let you know!_


	2. An promptly falls in love

The next day Steve went to the library to return the books and was overjoyed when Evie was there working. After asking he found out that she worked almost every day except Sunday and days she wanted off. There were two other people who worked at the library, James and Ella, but they kept mostly to themselves. The ended up having a long chat about the books and Steve admitted 'Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas' made him cry, and Evie said the same as she handed him a pile of her own items that she had brought to work for him to borrow 'just in case' he came in and then recommended a few books which he immediately took out to read later.

Steve then took her out for a coffee and lunch during her break.

This happened every few days for the next 2 weeks. In which they got to know each other a lot more and found they had more than just books in common. Evie educated Steve on more pieces of technology and changed his ringtone for, but stole the Star Spangled Man song for her ringtone whenever _he_ rung her.

They spoke about anything that came up to learn more about each other.

Evie never pushed Steve about his past, she did however ask him the occasional question but that was all but when he opened up about something she was quite happy to listen and comfort him if needed, he seemed quite surprised the first time she hugged him whilst he was telling her about Bucky.

When he opened up she did the same in return, she told him that her father left when she was four and her mother was a drunk for as long as she could remember, she spent more time with her great aunt Maggie than she did with her mom. She studied at Ohio University where she had studied IT but then somehow ended up the owner of a library in the middle of New York. She didn't go into much detail about what happened between university and New York and Steve didn't push sensing her reluctance.

He brought his drawing pad in for her to see had had forgotten that he'd drawn her. In the picture she was at the café they often went to and was grinning with a crinkled around her eyes, it was obvious he draw this form memory because she didn't remember him drawing while they were talking.

She had been embarrassed but amazed at his drawing. "You drew me?" She had asked.

His eyes went wide as he looked at the picture and blushed, "Yeah."

"Aren't there...better things you can draw?"

Steve shook his head looking quite sure. "Nothing."

A week after they had the first date, on a warmer day than most, Evie took Steve to the stables and managed to convince the owner to let Steve ride as well and they spent a few hours with Evie teaching Steve how to ride. When he first climbed into the horse he looked confident but each time the horse moved he flinched. Once he got used to it they started with a simple trot learning the basics before going into the more advanced riding since Steve is a quick learner. Riding around the large field he raced with the Evie even though she won each time not willing to go easy on him when she's in her element.

It was exactly two weeks after their first date when Evie got to work feeling cheerful hoping Steve would come see her today. He didn't come _every_ day but most days. Evie looked forward to it every morning.

He would always turn up at 11 O'clock sharp but by the time 11:30 rolled around Evie had assumed he wasn't going to come and each time she struggled to fight against the disappointment knowing that he was probably busy with the Avengers.

Evie shook off her thoughts of Steve - as hard as that is and concentrated in actually working for once, until of course a conversation caught her notice as she walked into the teenage isle where there was a couple sat together on a chair each holding a book but they were talking quietly, "Yeah! I heard, they had made robots like those Hammer Corp' things a few years back."

"Seriously? Who did it?"

"Duno, just some terrorists or something. It'll be fine though the Avengers are out there."

"Those guys are awesome."

"And girl, Black Widow is _hot_." The girl turned a page on the book she was reading heavily and the guy glanced at her, "Not as hot as you of course."

"Good."

Evie coughed and the couple looked up at her, "Sorry were we too loud?"

"No, no. You're fine. I just couldn't help but overhear you, the Avengers are fighting somewhere?"

"Yeah, it was on the news about an hour ago, in Washington I think."

"What's happened?"

"Just robots or something, they didn't tell us much just that they Avengers are on it really."

"Right...thank you." Evie continued to work but worrying more than ever, she started OCD'ing over the book on the shelves. What if something has happened to him during the fight and she knew she wouldn't know anything until it was said on the news because as far as she knew, Steve hadn't told the other Avengers about her just yet.

She tried to ignore the feeling of increasing worry and found herself checking the news on her computer every few minutes hoping for _something_ but there was nothing. Eventually the public slowly left the library and Evie decided to lock up early and made her way home in the rain.

"I'm home." she called walking through the front door and hung her coat up, there were three coats already hanging up meaning everyone was home.

Irene being her best friend, taller than Evie with blonde hair - at the moment at least, it was often dyed various colours - and sharp cheekbones, bright green eyes and an easy smile. Then Mycroft and Sherlock who were identical twins, they were both quite tall with short straight black hair, and blue/green eyes. Mycroft was slightly taller than Sherlock, with shorter parted hair and a rounder face. Sherlock had slender fingers, a wider grin and usually spiked up his hair.

Although they looked almost exactly the same, they dressed a lot differently and acted just as differently. Mycroft usually dressed proper and he spoke with a posher accent. Evie always made fun of him for that, he put it down to his job. Sherlock usually wore jeans and a T-shirt and was much quieter but he when he did speak it was usually something meaningful or amusing.

"Hey, sexy," Irene called from the living room on the left. "Lover boy come today?"

"Nope, didn't you see on the news? Avengers are fighting in Washington."

"Ah crap."

Sherlock moved over to allow Evie to sit down beside him and she curled into his warm side. "Where's Croft?"

"Cooking!" Mycroft's voice called from the kitchen through the corridor on the right.

"Mm what you making?"

"Chicken and potatoes. Give us 20 minutes."

"Croft, that's the best thing you've ever said." Evie sighed with relief along with her rumbling stomach.

"That says a lot about my intellect." Mycroft chuckled.

"Since we're all here, Friday night film while we eat?" Irene asked.

"Depends? What film?"

"Horror." Sherlock stated as if there were no other genres.

"Something easy?" Evie asked hopefully.

"An _easy horror_?" Mycroft asked, amused.

"What about that film where you said the guy looks like Thor?"

"What? Chris Hemsworth?"

"Yeah, him? What's that horror film he'd been in lately?"

"Cabin in the woods?" Evie guessed, "I haven't seen it yet."

"Yeah. That would be an easy horror. It's not too scary."

Evie rolled her eyes but nodded, letting Irene to get up and set it up before staring on dinner once it was done.

Evie curled up against Sherlock while Irene curled up against his other side and put her feet across Mycroft's lap and the brothers just sat comfortably with their best friends around them. Until halfway through the film as the zombies broke into the house there was a loud knock on the door and absolutely everyone jumped, Irene dropped the popcorn she had made and looked around as if waiting for the zombies to attack.

They sat in silence for a minute glancing around and Mycroft paused the film. Evie switched on a light and glanced at the time, 9:49. Slowly she walked to the door glancing back to see Sherlock just behind her, she pulled open the door.

Where Captain America stood, soaking wet in full uniform and shield in hand.

His uniform had quite a few rips in it where blood was slowly seeping out and she could see what looked like burns on his skin and clothes. Even the paintwork on his shield was scratched and burnt. He was leaning heavily on the side of the door.

"Evelyn!" he greeted cheerfully but tiredly, "3rd times a charm I guess."

"Sorry?"

"I tried two different apartments before this."

"Right." Evie wasn't completely sure what to say as she stepped back to allow him in. Steve sent her a grateful look before his knees seemed to give way and he fell forward, Evie tried to catch him but he was too heavy so Sherlock stepped forward to help, leading him into the lounge where they sat him on the couch. "I'm going to assume you haven't been to a hospital yet?"

"Nope." Steve shook his head and stared up at her earnestly, "Tomorrow night. Go on a date with me?" Steve asked before Evie could say anything else.

"Tomorrow night?" Evie asked shocked, had he come to her apartment after an obviously hard battle just to ask her on a date?

"Yes. I was fighting earlier and I thought I've taken you to a café for lunch but we need a proper date, a dinner date. I wanted to give you that so I came immediately."

Evie smiled shocked and nodded, "Sounds like a plan. A very..._very_..._very_ good plan."

"Good." Steve grinned, "Very good. Great actually." Steve grin at her "I should..." he gestured to the door but his legs didn't seem to like that and he fell back onto the couch with an undignified 'ofph'. "I hope you don't mind but I think I'm gonna just..." Steve's eyes closed and lay backwards on the couch, immediately falling unconscious but he was still gripping hold of his shield, arm hanging just off the end of the couch.

"That was unexpected." Evie muttered.

"You never told me he was this hot in person." Irene muttered annoyed, Evie rolled her eyes at her friend. "That is the sweetest but probably stupidest thing ever."

"What is?" Evie asked dumbly watching as Mycroft left the room.

"He's obviously just come back from a battle and comes straight to you to ask you on a date? Can I date him instead?"

"No." Evie rolled her eyes glancing up at Mycroft walked back into the room holding a blanket and a first aid kit.

"We should just make sure most of those...injures aren't too bad." He explained bending down beside Steve and attempting to pull his shirt off, Evie wasn't sure what to do so Sherlock stepped forward to help, both Irene and Evie couldn't help but stare appreciatively at Steve's bare broad chest despite the injures scattered across until Evie snapped out of his and went to get a towel to dry him from the rain but also some warm water to clean the blood off.

Once they were done Mycroft put one of his shirts on Steve even if it was a bit tight and Evie covered him with the blanket. Sherlock attempted to move the shield to make him more comfortable but even unconscious, but Steve was gripping tightly to it. "We'll know if they get any worse then we'll sort it out in the morning when he wakes up."

"I'm gonna get to bed." Irene muttered with a look to the two men who both agreed.

"We can finish the film tomorrow?" Sherlock suggested and Evie nodded.

"Goodnight guys." Evie muttered watching as they left the room and went down the corridor to their bedrooms.

She sat there for a while just staring at Steve still shocked; Captain America had seriously just come to ask her on a date? Now fallen unconscious on her couch? When she woke up this morning she had not expected this.

Evie lightly brushed his hair back and smiled, she had only known him for two weeks but she hoped to God that she would know him much, much longer. Not just because he's Captain America but because he's sweet and kind and funny and just everything she's ever wanted.

Sighing in content Evie stood up and made her way to bed.

Mycroft and Sherlock were usually the first two awake and Mycroft went to check on Steve to find him still fast asleep. Mycroft considered leaving him asleep but decided that the rest of the Avengers might be worrying about him and Evie would be waking up soon for work at 10:30 so Mycroft bent down and lightly touched Steve's shoulder.

And only just about dodged the shield in time as it was flung towards him and landed in the TV causing it to fall over and spark. Steve sat up quickly and looked around before staring at the shocked looking Mycroft and Sherlock as the latter ran into the room. A moment later Evie and Irene joined them wearing pyjamas and shocked expressions.

"Uh...sorry..." Steve muttered staring at the TV, "I'll uh...pay for that."

"What the hell?!" Irene murmured looking between Mycroft, Sherlock and Steve.

"Sorry, I'm not used to be woken up..." Steve added slowly sitting up and looking about until he caught Evie's eye.

"Good morning." Evie spoke amused, eyes running up and down him appreciatively. He looked incredible in Mycroft's tight shirt and his tight Captain America pants.

"Morning." Steve blushed as he noticed her appreciative look and ran a hand through his hair ruffling it so it was perfect. "Sorry, I planned to go back last night, I think I was a bit more tired that I realised."

"It's alright. Just wasn't expecting to need a new TV."

"I'll pay for that." Steve repeated walking to the smashed TV to collect his shield; Mycroft left the room and came back with a black bag and a dust pan and brush.

Sherlock bent down to pick up the now broken TV but was obviously struggling so Steve put his shield down on the table and took it off him, holding it up easily, "Where do you want it?"

"By the front door please." Mycroft answered as he started to clean up the glass.

"Uh, I should probably introduce you all." Evie realised, "Steve this is Mycroft, Sherlock and Irene." She pointed at each of them as Steve came back into the room.

Steve nodded and smiled sheepishly at each of them, "Pleasure to meet Evie's friends, I apologise again for the intrusion and TV."

"Quite alright, I should have known not to wake a solider or Avenger in an unfamiliar place." Mycroft smiled and Steve blushed unsure what to say to that, luckily Evie saved him.

"I'll make some breakfast then shall I?" Evie offered walking into the kitchen; Steve stayed to help Mycroft, Sherlock and Irene in cleaning up.

"Irene, keep Evie in the kitchen." Mycroft spoke up suddenly, his voice low and eerie making Steve look up at them and frown. He glanced towards Irene as she left the room and he heard a noise of protest from Evie but she didn't say anything in warning so Steve tried not to worry. He couldn't help but glance at his shield which he had placed on the sofa.

Both brothers stood up towering over Steve who was knelt on the floor cleaning the glass, he was tempted to stand but knew he could over power the two men if need be quite easily, "What are your intentions with Evie?" Mycroft asked as soon as he knew Evie was stuck in the kitchen.

"Uh...to court her?" Steve answered very carefully, not wanting to say the wrong thing.

"Is that a question or an answer?" Sherlock asked sternly.

"An answer?" Sherlock gave him a look and Steve sat up straighter, "An answer." he added more firmly.

"And you like her?"

"Yes. I mean we've only known each other for a couple of weeks but yes. I do."

"What would you do if she was hurt?"

"Call an ambulance and try to help her."

Sherlock's face hardened and Steve tried to re-think his answer but another question was asked before he could, "We know you're a superhero and you fight battle, Evie is put in danger by this correct?"

"Yes. But I believe she can handle herself. Despite that I will protect her best I can. I'm sure once she meets the rest of the team they will treat her as they do Pepper."

Mycroft looked vaguely impressed at that answer. The brothers glanced at each other with small smiles on their faces, "Well then, we like you. You seem like an honourable man."

"But you should know,"

"No matter how famous,"

"Or honourable,"

"Or just plain _liked_,"

"If you harm _one hair_ on her head,"

"You will regret the day you were born." Sherlock finished the sentence with a glare that would actually make Steve take a step back.

"Got it?" Steve's eyes were wide but he nodded, "Got it?" Mycroft repeated.

"Yes. I won't hurt her. I don't _want_ to hurt her."

"Good. Irene, Evie." Sherlock called and the two girls walked back into the room, Evie shot Steve an apologetic look and gestured for him to join her in the kitchen.

"I am so sorry about them." She murmured in the kitchen glancing through the corridor where the others were cleaning up, "They're a bit over protective of me especially since everything happened with my family and well...every time they think they have to make the brotherly speech and they usually end up scaring people off. If you don't wanna know them and by extension me I get it an-"

Steve cut her off with a kiss and Evie looked at him surprised, "I've fought against Nazi's, Aliens, Robots, geniuses, psychopaths and I live with _Tony Stark_. I think I can handle protective friends. Anyway if I hurt you I deserve anything they give me."

Evie smiled softly and lent into his broad chest in a hug, Steve wrapped his arms around her and they stayed that way for a moment.

Until of course Steve remembered that he had just left last night telling the others he'll be back soon, so reluctantly he pulled back, "I'm really sorry Evelyn, but I should head home. The others are probably starting to worry about me. And I need to get changed and this fixed," he gestured at his clothes before he suddenly noticed he wasn't wearing his usual blue shirt. "Uh..."

"Right, sorry, we made sure your injures aren't too bad and that's Mycroft's shirt." Evie blushed as she all but admitted she had seen him shirtless but he didn't point that out, instead he nodded.

"Thank you, where's my-"

"By the sofa. How are you feeling? It looked kinda painful last night?"

"Yeah...got burnt by lasers a few times, it's fine though I heal quickly."

"I'm glad." Evie smiled. "Alright I'll see you soon?"

"Yeah, tonight." Steve bent forward and captured her lips in a kiss.

"Yeah," Evie grinned at him once he pulled away, "Tonight."

Steve grinned back out of the kitchen leaning into the lounge, "Thank you for letting me sleep on your couch last night. Again sorry for the intrusion and I'll pay for the TV." He told the others.

"See you." Mycroft called while the others waved.

"Don't forget this." Irene handed him the shield, helmet mask and shirt, "Huh...lighter than it looks."

"Thank you ma'am." Steve smiled and left the apartment murmuring another goodbye.

"He called me _ma'am_." He heard Irene giggling.

"He calls everyone ma'am, you see that's what _polite_ people do. But of course _you_ wouldn't kn..." the conversation faded away as Steve got further from the door and made his way home.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Steve walked into the common room, to find everyone but Tony already awake and crowded around the breakfast bar already eating breakfast.

Natasha and Clint looked the worst from the fight yesterday with cuts, bruises and burns all over their visible body but they didn't seem to be very bothered, being quite used to being bruised and injured after fights. Thor seemed as cheerful as normal but tired and obviously aching. Bruce looked fine just over tired and aching due to changing into the Hulk.

"Morning Steve." Natasha greeted with a barely concealed yawn.

"Morning, what's all this?" he gestured to the plate of waffles waiting at his usual spot on the breakfast bar.

"We woke up and thought we'd make you breakfast for once." Bruce answered and Steve smiled gratefully.

"Thank you."

Steve sat down and started to eat when Tony came in to cheerful for his usual self so early in the morning. He looked a little rough for wear but no better than the others. "Cap! You need to watch this!" Tony stated with amusement in his voice, Natasha and Clint sighed and Steve glanced at them curiously, "JARVIS. Play it?"

The TV across the room switched on to show the video of room they were in but it was focused on the kitchen counter, the time stamp in the corner said 8:38. Clint and Natasha were lying on the counter curled around each other sleeping peacefully. It was obvious they had both just collapsed. Natasha started to stir causing Clint to do the same, they both so suddenly pushed at each other throwing the other off the counter and grunting in pain as they hit the floor.

Tony's immediate laughter was heard off screen and slowly the two assassins slowly sat up and looked around and at each other.

"Huh." Clint mumbled then glared in what Steve assumed is Tony's direction as the other man was still laughing.

The screen went black and Steve grinned but he wasn't surprised. "How did you get the shiner?" he knew the answer but it was fun to ask.

"Natasha gave it to me after I showed Bruce."

"And you continue to show it to everyone anyway?"

"Well dur!" Tony shrugged and bent down to kiss Pepper and stole one of her waffles. "Where did you disappear to last night?" he asked Steve before Pepper could mention the waffle. She rolled her eyes at him and Steve stared blankly, "Soon as we got back. You left?" Tony prompted.

Steve shrugged, "I had to see something." he caught Natasha's eye and knew she knew but her face didn't show any reaction. Pepper however was grinning slightly and Steve had a feeling she may have guessed something but he couldn't be sure, maybe it was a female thing. He didn't think Natasha would have told her but then again girls gossiped ever more in this time than in his.

"You obviously just got back," Tony gestured to what Steve was wearing. "And that's not you're shirt." Tony smirked, "So you were out _all night_?"

"Yes."

"With anyone special?" Tony stared at the shirt Steve was wearing, "Male or female, we don't judge."

Steve cringed slightly and shook his head, "No offence meant but Tony, it's not really any of your business." Steve took a large bite of his waffle and smirked at Tony who scowled, not liking not knowing.

"Bruce, Tony have you had any luck with my Clints new arrows?" Natasha asked making Clint perk up and Steve grateful for the change of subject.

"Not much, still trying to figure out how to make heat sensitive but with wood it's hard."

"We need sonic waves for that so we're trying to re-create Doctor Who's sonic screwdriver but we need a-"

"The Doctor." Tony interrupted.

"Sorry?"

"'Doctor Who' is the show 'The Doctor' is the man."

"Right..." Bruce rolled his eyes at Tony's Sci-Fi geeky-ness. "_The Doctors_ sonic screwdriver. But we need a stabilising agent."

"What do you need?" Clint asked. "I'm sure S.H.I.E.L.D would be able to get it."

"Not sure yet, there are a few that could work but also ones that could cause a nuclear bomb."

"Ah."

The group continued to talk for a while about things that went completely over his head until Steve left first for a shower and quickly the group dispersed, Steve walked back into the common room to get a drink and found Natasha sat there alone. "You like her a lot." It wasn't a question.

"Yes." Steve nodded glancing around nervous that someone else was listening. It wasn't that he was ashamed of Evie but he had only known her two weeks, once he introduced her to the Avengers it'd feel more serious. He wasn't sure if he was ready for that just yet. "I mean...I barely know her but she's...amazing."

Natasha allowed her lips to twitch, which to her was a huge grin, "I'm glad. You deserve someone. What happened last night?"

"I fell asleep on the sofa...her roommates threatened me this morning."

Natasha's eyebrow's rose and she looked concerned, "What happened?"

"Oh, nothing serious, just worry for Evelyn."

"Ah. Do you want to tell the others yet?"

Steve hesitated, "I don't know...we've been out for coffee but I think tonight would be a proper date. It's odd because in my time dating was done so differently than it is now and I want her to be comfortable."

"Steve," Natasha spoke up sternly, "Do what you want. If she gets uncomfortable or doesn't like it, she'll tell you, but I doubt you can make anyone feel uncomfortable unless you _want_ them to." Steve smiled at Natasha's words, relaxing slightly knowing she spoke the truth but it was still hard to not worry about these things, "Where are you taking her?"

"Uh it's a small Italian restaurant down the road called 'El Grillo'."

"The Cricket?"

"Sorry?"

"El Grillo," Natasha said with an Italian accent, "It means The Cricket."

"Oh uh...yeah I guess." Steve shrugged. "Tony's mentioned it a few times."

"Why don't you take her dancing? Something I assume you'd enjoy and that's always a fun romantic gesture for most women." there was a slight wistful look in her eyes but it was gone as quickly as it had come.

Steve blushed, "I uh...don't know how to dance."

"You don't?"

"No...I never learnt, I was...waiting for the right partner."

"But if you don't know how, then how will you dance with her when you find her?" Natasha just sounded confused more than anything.

Steve shrugged. "Peggy was going to teach me."

Natasha's eye softened as she stood up, "JARVIS play...Moonlight Serenade by Glenn Miller." The song immediately started play and Steve looked at Natasha curiously as she walked into the middle of the room staring back at him expectantly.

"What-?"

"You don't need to take her _tonight_, so I'll teach you, we can spend the next few weeks learning different dance's except break dance, I'll only do that if I'm on mission."

"I-"

"Steve. _Now_." Steve obediently stood up at her stern tone and walked towards her nervously, he was much taller than her but it didn't matter too much as she grabbed his wrist moving it to place his hand onto her waist and then placed her hand onto his shoulder before taking his other hand. "You're the man so you need to lead." Natasha begun to explain it as they moved, just a simple waltz.

They did this for about half an hour before Clint dropped into the room from the air vents and Steve pulled away quickly.

"Whoa sorry." Clint apologized; "If I interrupted anything...?" he started to back away towards the elevator but Steve shook his head.

"'Tasha was just teaching me how to dance."

"Is that what you're calling it now?" Clint winked making Steve blush and Natasha roll her eyes.

"Practise with Clint." Natasha ordered and both men turned their eyes on her.

"Sorry?" Steve asked.

"What?" Clint didn't understand, "Dancing or _dancing_?"

"Dancing." Natasha answered exasperated. "Clint, be the woman we all know you are. Steve, _lead_."

Both men glanced at each other then back at Natasha, Clint shrugged and stepped forward having no qualms about dancing with another man he just hadn't expected to. Steve, however, was hesitant. In his mind he could hear his dad yelling _'the heck are ya doing, son?'_ His father had been extremely homophobic, and so it was hard-wired into Steve. Tony had told him that it was completely okay for a man to be gay, or a woman lesbian, and but it was still hard for him. Tony had understood that, but told him rather bluntly to _'get over it'_.

So, Steve took a step forward.

Clint grinned and took his hand putting his other hand on Steve's shoulder, "On my waist darlin'." Clint smirked when he noticed Steve looking unsure what to do with his left hand.

Steve placed his hand on Clint's waist.

"Clint's the woman so you need to lead." Natasha spoke softly as another song started to play.

After a few moments of Clint waiting patiently Steve started to lead him in the waltz. It felt different than dancing with Natasha, especially as Clint didn't have the curves and his muscles felt odd against Steve's own. After about 5 minutes Clint released Steve and grabbed Natasha. Steve laughed as she looked shocked for a second before she actually _laughed_ and danced with Clint. Steve grinned as he watched the two in a dance that looked so practised and so..._perfect_ that Steve found himself mesmerised. Until of course Clint swapped again.

After 10 minutes of this the music stopped and claps were heard from the side of the room where Tony, Pepper, Bruce and Thor stood.

"Woo!" Tony grinned Steve jumped away from Clint; Clint just wrapped his arm round Steve's shoulders having to stretch to reach them due to Steve's height.

"Why were you two dancing?" Bruce asked curiously.

"Is there going to be a ball?" Thor asked hopefully.

Steve shrugged with a faint blush on his cheeks, "No Ball, I was learning."

"You're a fast learner." Pepper spoke up, "That looked amazing."

"Thanks."

"When did you all turn up?" Clint asked, that was a rare question for Clint as he usually noticed anyone immediately.

"About 5 minutes ago." Tony answered, "I saw it on a video, had to see it in person. So did they," he gestured to the others who just looked exasperated at Tony's actions.

Natasha rolled her eyes and sat down on the chair and a tired but grinning Steve sat beside her and the others disappeared to their little corners of the tower.

"That was..._interesting_." Steve murmured and Natasha laughed making Steve stare. She looked relaxed and was actually smiling. "You look really pretty when you smile." he said without thinking and then blushed, "That's not to say you don't look pretty when you don't smile because you do. You definitely do, I just-"

Natasha laughed again and put her hand over Steve's mouth. "Shh."

"Mmmrrery." Steve said which was meant to be 'sorry'. After a moment Natasha released it, "I just meant you don't smile often. You should."

"What part of shh don't you understand?" Steve shrugged and Natasha rolled her eyes, "Thank you for your compliment. It's just strange to know I'm safe enough to relax." it was obviously hard for her to admit to that but Steve was glad she did.

"You're safe here."

"I know." Natasha smiled again and stood up, "Have a good time on your date."

"Yeah. Thank you, for the lesson."

"Use it wisely." Natasha walked into the elevator and Steve made his way back to his room.

The rest of the day past by quickly until Steve checked with Natasha about the clothes he was wearing and then made his way to the library which he found locked.

Frowning Steve looked around, where is she? He waited a few minutes before he pulled out his phone; it was 6:07 so he decided to text her. It took him a moment before he remembered how,

_'Hello have you forgotten about tonight? If you don't want to go that's fine, I just found the library locked.'_

He wasn't sure how else to word it and wasn't sure he'd be able to change it even if he wanted to, so he sent it hoping she hadn't changed her mind.


	3. Meeting the Avengers

**'Rly sori! friend's house who lives near. B thre sn. Xx'**

Steve's eyes widened at the text. What the _heck_. He read it out loud quietly. She's sorry. A friend lives near and she'll be here soon? That seemed about right.

He _thinks_ that's what she means at least. So he waited outside the library and five minutes later a red car pulled up and Evie stepped out wearing leggings and a long crimson coloured top, her hair was down hanging around her shoulders as opposed to her usual plait. "Wow." Steve murmured, "Evelyn, you look beautiful." Evie blushed, he said it often but she felt embarrassed at the compliment every time. How could he think that so much?

"Thank you. Uh, this is Valerie." she motioned to the girl driving the car; she had dark skin and black hair and looked very pretty but Steve struggled to take his eyes off Evie.

"Nice to meet you Valerie."

"And you Captain. Now have fun, don't do anything I wouldn't."

"Which is what?" Evie laughed closing the door before Valerie could say anything else and she drove off.

"Sorry about that. She lies just down the road, went over to get changed and do my hair."

"Nothing to apologize about." Steve shrugged. "Shall we?" he offered her his arm which she took with another small blush. "It's not far but it's almost winter, we can get a cab if your cold?"

"Nah, I'm happy to walk."

Steve nodded and pulled out his cell as they walked to ask her a question, "What does this symbol mean?" he asked showing her the text she had sent and pointed at the ' '.

"At." Evie answered. She had grown used to answering questions like that over the weeks they had known each other.

"Ah. Makes more sense now."

"Sorry," Evie grinned sheepishly, "I forget you're not used to 'text talk'."

"Could you teach me?"

"What do you wanna know?" Evie glanced down barely resisting the urge to tread of crunchy looking leaves.

"I don't know...just how do you shorten the words?"

"It's phonetics. So say you didn't know how to spell, how would you spell...bowl?"

"Uh...B O L?"

"Exactly, so just spell how it sounds also just don't use un-needed letters like...letter you don't _need_ two 'T's' and the E so pu R."

"I think I get it. So 'phone' would b E? Because the P H sounds like an F?"

"Exactly." Evie grinned again and Steve was glad he understood.

"I'll have to practise that. Thank you."

"I'm happy to help."

They walked for another few minutes until Steve stopped so suddenly that Evie almost fell over. "Oh, sorry!" Steve apologised as he caught her.

"It's ok. Are we eating _here_?" Evie's eyes were wide as she stared at the Italian restaurant.

"Yeah...is there a problem?"

"No, no...this is..._wow_. I've always wanted to eat here but it's almost impossible to get a reservation. I mean, you need to book _way_ before two weeks."

"Benefits of being an Avenger." Steve stated sheepishly as if he was slightly ashamed of using his power in that way but Evie just laughed.

"Right, that would make sense, but still! _Wow_!"

Steve just smiled shyly unsure of what to say as they entered the restaurant, "Good afternoon Sir, Madam. Do you have a reservation?"

"Yes. For two. Under Rogers."

The man opened and book and looked through it, "Of course Mr and Mrs Rogers, this way." Steve started to explain that they weren't married but the man had walked away and he Steve didn't think he could get the words out over his embarrassment, Evie just stifled giggles.

The door host handed them the menus, "A waiter should be here soon. Is there anything you need? Drinks?"

"A bottle of wine would be great?"

"Of course, red or white?"

Steve looked between Evie and the host, "Uh...red?" Evie suggested.

"Red wine please." Steve smiled at the waiter who nodded and stalked off.

"This is... _wow_..." Evie repeated.

Steve wasn't sure what to say to that, "Tony has mentioned this restaurant a lot so I thought it'd be good."

"He comes here often?"

"Yeah, with Pepper."

"Cool." Evie wasn't sure what to say to that so she looked down at her menu as a waiter introduced himself and poured them both a glass of wine before leaving them the bottle and walked away promising to be back once they had decided what they want.

"So what did your room-mates think of me?" Steve asked carefully once the waiter left, "Also how much do I owe you for the TV?"

Evie laughed at remembering that, "Uh...I'll let you know later. But yes, they approve." Steve smiled. "I can't believe you actually threw your shield at the TV!"

"I wasn't aiming for it."

"No, you were aiming for my best friends." Evie grinned to show him she was just teasing, "Um...I should really apologise in advance, they may uh...test you."

"_Test _me?" Steve asked with a slightly nervous laugh.

"Yeah...uh...with one of my ex's they've um, told someone that I was leaving the country...that I died...even told someone I was a vampire. Irene has kissed everyone."

Steve's eyebrows rose especially at the last one, "What are they testing?"

"Reaction to the news...see if he'll cheat on me with someone that's 'easy'. Not saying Irene's easy but she pretends to be. Well Tommy broke up with me quite quickly after that and I didn't speak to the others for weeks."

"How many ex's have you had?" Steve asked suddenly. He tried to not sound jealous but it happened anyway. Evie noticed and grinned.

"We're there already are we?" Evie asked, amused. "Awkward Ex's talk?"

Steve looked confused. "Awkward Ex's talk? Oh...sorry I didn't mean to..."

Evie laughed, "No, no. It's fine. I've had about...5 boyfriends. Only two were serious."

"Oh, what happened?"

"Uh...well the first two were like teenage flings. Then Zach and I went out from 15 to 17 when he cheated on me. Met Tommy when I was 18 but he was scared off barely a few months later. Then uh then I met Jacob..." Evie trailed off and glanced down at the table for a moment, "Freshman year of college. We went out for 5 years. He proposed exactly 6 months after we graduated from college. When he was diagnosed with a brain tumour." Steve's mouth dropped open at that in shock but he quickly regained control as Evie continued, "We got married a few days before he died, because he wanted to be married to me before..." Evie swallowed and closed her eyes, "That was a year and a half ago."

"Oh gosh...Evelyn, I'm so sorry."

Evie shook her head and opened her eyes, "You didn't kill him. You're actually the first person I've dated since then actually." she blinked hard for a few seconds to make the tears go. "Sorry. I've never actually spoken about it since. What about you? Did you date anyone before _Captain America_?" Evie smirked, "What about those dancing girls? Sleep with any of them?" she looked amused but there was also a genuine look of curiosity and jealousy in her eyes.

Steve's eyes widened and he only just stopped himself from spitting out the sip of wine he took; he went bright red and shook his head, "N-n-no. I didn't. I mean...not...I uh..."

Evie smiled softly at his obvious embarrassment and placed her hand on his that was resting on the table, "Ok, ok. You didn't."

Steve looked into her eyes and smiled embarrassed, "Sorry."

Evie shook her head, "It's fine, did you date anyone though?"

"Well...there's only been one. Peggy, she was...well your very similar actually. We never actually went on a date; I was trapped in the ice before we got the chance."

"Is she...I mean, is she still alive?"

"I don't know."

"If she is, would you...?" Evie wasn't completely sure how to word the question and Steve smiled in understanding.

"I'd love to see her yes. But she'd be...older now, she'll have her own family, I hope at least."

"You hope?"

"Yes. I just wanted her to be happy. I'd love to have a dance with her though. I'm 70 years late for that."

"Have you tried to find her?"

"I asked S.H.I- The people I work for about people from the war. My friends from the war, I haven't looked through them all but...most of them are deceased."

"I'm sorry."

"You didn't do anything." Steve shook his head and they fell silent as their dinner turned up and they slowly dug in, neither sure what to say for a few minutes.

Evie eventually spoke up carefully; "Could I try some of that please?" she gestured to his Spaghetti Bolognese.

"Of course," he moved the plate closer to her and let her take a forkful.

"Mmm," Evies eyes closed in delight, "Want some carbonara?"

"I wouldn't mind."

Evie nodded and let him, "When's your birthday?"

Steve was caught by the sudden question but he knew the answer, "4th July. You?"

"You're _joking_?!"

Steve laughed, "Nope."

"Captain _America's_ Birthday is on _Independence Day_?!"

"Yep, that was my birthday before I became him though,"

"_Destiny_."

Steve laughed at that glad of the easy topic allowing him to relax, "When's yours?"

Evie laughed, "April 19th. According to my mum that was Easter Sunday that year."

"Huh, well you have got the energy of an Easter bunny." Evie's eyebrow rose and Steve blushed again, "Sorry, I didn't mean...I uh..."

Evie laughed, "It's fine, not usually compared to Easter Bunnies but it works I guess. Do you play any instruments?"

"No. Do you?"

"The Cello. Haven't played it in a while though."

"You played the cello and you lived in Portland?"

Evie rose an eyebrow, "Yes? Why?"

Steve shook his head, "Just sounds familiar. It's nothing." The conversation picked up after that and they ended up laughing and chatting as the rest of the date went by quickly. Steve asked for the bill and paid for the meal despite Evie's protests.

Once the meal was paid for Steve led her outside, "I've really enjoyed this."

"Me too." Evie agreed.

They walked in silent for a moment before Steve noticed Evie was shivering and he slipped his jacket off and placed it on her shoulders, Evie looked up in surprised, mentally laughing at the cheesiness of it but she wasn't going to complain. "Thank you." She murmured pulling the brown leather jacket tighter around herself, "I love this jacket. It really looks good on you."

"Thanks, it was the first thing I bought myself when I woke up. I mean...I was given clothes and lots of stuff but I saw the jacket and really liked it."

"You're a browncoat and you don't know it."

"A browncoat?"

Evie grinned, "Uh, fans of the TV show Firefly."

"Firefly? You never mentioned it before. Is it good?"

"_Best. Show. Ever._"

"Best show ever?"

"Yep." Evie popped the P and grinned.

"Why haven't you mentioned it before?"

"Uh...because it makes me slightly insane and I don't want to scare you off just yet."

Steve chuckled, "I live with Tony Stark. I doubt you can scare me off."

"Remember you're the one that said that." Evie laughed and hesitantly took his hand; Steve just gripped it back and grinned as they walked in the darkness in comfortable silence, ignoring and not caring about the ones around them until they reached Evie's building. "Come in for a drink?"

"I'd love to."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Oh my gosh I am so sorry! I didn't post last night! I've received multiple anons about it and I'm very sorry! However, you may of heard that the Avengers were called in to battle some alien/robots/Dalek things, and Mr Steve I-Think-I'm-Invincible came to ask me on a date, without seeking medical attention first… then collapses on the sofa.**  
**A good fifteen hours later Mycroft decides it's a good idea to prod a super-solider. This resulted in Sherlock almost losing his head and a broken TV. Apparently Steve will pay for it.**  
**Mycroft, Sherlock and Irene then go and try scare Steve off with The Brother Talk, but then he's all cool with it and hugs me. He promptly leaves to get back to the other Avengers.**  
**So, the date: Steve texts me cause I'm running late, so I text him back in full on text abbreviations. I completely forgot Steve would have no idea what I was talking about, but I guessed he figured it out in the end.**  
**(I hope he did, anyways)**  
**I eventually arrive and Steve compliments me again. He asks me about the text and I explained to him about text abbreviations and we get there eventually. He's adorable when he's confused.**  
**Where we had dinner was amazing. You know that place, um, what's it called? OH YEAH EL GRILLIO!**  
**We get shown to a table (The waiter person thought we were married! No comment) that Steve secured because of being an all-mighty Avenger, and we talk. Hallo, awkward ex's talk! I asked Steve if he'd ever slept with the dancing girls and he basically went into cardiac arrest.**  
**He had dated one woman, though, Peggy.**  
**That makes me oddly happy.**  
**I also found out Steve's birthday is on Independence Day.**  
**Yup.**  
**We talked for longer (Steve told me that when he'd first seen the title of the third Harry Potter book he'd thought that it had been the Prisoner of Alcatraz, not Azkaban, like I had!) (He also compared me to a bunny because of my birthday.) He paid again for the meal and we left. We walk for a while and he notices I'm cold, so he gives me his jacket like the proper cheesy gentleman he is, and he says the jacket is the first thing he ever bought himself.**  
**The next update will be SOON**  
**Ahaha**  
**I'll see you later, guys.**  
**(For those of you who are interested, Steve has not slept with the dancing girls)**  
**[Oct 11, 2012]**

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Another week past where the two went on another date. Evie invited Steve out with her room-mates to let them get to know each other, which both parties felt like it went well. Steve got along very well with Mycroft and quite well with the other two. Irene was very flirtatious which seemed to embarrass Steve and Evie found herself trying to rein Irene in but it didn't work very well.

They went back to Evie's apartment for dinner, but Evie spilt soup down herself and went for a quick shower. When she came out she found Irene trying to seduce Steve. Who for one looked like his head was about to explode from embarrassment.

"Rene he's not gonna cheat."

Steve glanced over at her and Evie had never seen so much relief on someone's face, Irene scowled.

"Damnit. I wouldn't mind a bit of that."

"_Irene_!" Evie sighed, "You're terrible. Sorry about that Steve."

"Uh...s'ok uh I guess." Steve muttered.

Steve knew he needed to tell the other Avengers about Evie and was planning to but it turned out he didn't need to.

Tony and Bruce were making significant process in re-creating the Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver when JARVIS interrupted them, "Sir, I've have been constantly running the internet scan as you asked and I have detected Captain Roger's name a few times on a website."

"Internet scan?" Bruce asked curiously.

"Yeah, JARVIS constantly scans the accessible internet for any mentions of all the Avengers. Excluding fan-pages and the like." Tony explained, "Put it up J."

The computer screen changed to show a simple Tumblr blog the URL being '221B-Serenity-Camelot-TARDIS'. JARVIS put it straight on the first mention of Steve 3 weeks ago. Tony frowned as he and Bruce begun to read through the entries.

**'You would never guess who I bumped into at work today. THE CAPTIAN AMERICA.'  
****'He had a conversation to TONY STARK. Yes THE Tony Stark Genius Billionaire Iron Man!'  
****'Steve called me by Evelyn! Gosh, he's so sweet.'  
****'(He called Clint and Natasha, and I quote, 'Terrifying'! and that's saying a lot coming from a Super solider!)'  
****'He kissed me! On the lips! For such a shy guy, that was a pretty big move!'  
****'I have met, talked to and kissed Captain America!'  
****'He came AGAIN today! At 11O'clock sharp he turned up! And called me Evelyn again!'  
****'He kissed me again when he left as well!'  
****'Yes! Horse riding!'  
**'**Mr Steve I-Think-I'm-Invincible came to ask me on a date, without seeking medical attention first… then collapses on the sofa.'**

"Oh! That's where he went!" Tony muttered and Bruce rolled his eyes.

'**This resulted in Sherlock almost losing his head and a broken TV.'  
**'**Mycroft, Sherlock and Irene then go and try scare Steve off with The Brother Talk,'  
**'**Hallo, awkward ex's talk! I asked Steve if he'd ever slept with the dancing girls'  
**'**Peggy.'  
**'**The proper cheesy gentleman he is, and he says the jacket is the first thing he ever bought himself.'**

"Huh." Tony murmured once they finished scrolling to the top. "How the hell did Steve manage to get a girlfriend?"

"Apparently he did quite well." Bruce answered dryly.

"How did he even talk to her? You were there when he met Pepper; he blushed like a 15 year old talking to the hottest girl in school."

"Pepper is a very beautiful woman."

"Why hasn't he told us about her? Oh do you think something's wrong with her that he doesn't want to mention to us yet?"

"More wrong than having a giant green rage monster inside you? Or having to have a magnet inside your body to stay alive, or living with 2 assassins, or-"

"I get your point." Tony scowled.

"Or the fact that Steve is the complete _opposite_ of shallow."

"I said I get your point." Tony repeated childishly and Bruce smirked at Tony's annoyance.

"Well judging by these blogs, he's only known her for what? 3 weeks. Steve's a private guy. He's just not ready to tell us yet."

"Why not? We tell him anything big that happens! Steve Rogers getting a girlfriend is _huge_!"

"If I got a girlfriend I wouldn't come home tell everyone immediately. I'd want to know it's happening and real before I introduce you all."

"I'd tell you all."

"Yeah. Says the Genius Billionaire _Playboy_ Philanthropist." Tony scowled deeper at Bruce's calm logic but didn't comment.

That evening during a dinner of lamb stew made by Pepper and Clint, the Avengers were chatting casually and Tony spoke up completely ignoring Bruce's warning look.

"So, who's Evie Rae?"

Steve choked on a piece of meat at the question and Thor patted him on the back, the lamb came flying out and landed in Clint drink. Steve sent him an apologetic look. "Where did you hear that name?" he asked Tony as soon as he could breathe.

"That's for me to-"

"JARVIS runs an internet scan for any of our names and possible threats to us." Bruce interrupted, "You're name was mentioned a few times an JARVIS wanted Tony to look it up." Tony scowled at Bruce but the other man ignored him.

"Ah." Steve murmured in understanding, he remembered Evie mentioning that she wrote a blog on the web.

"Who is this Evie Rae?" Thor asked curiously and Steve received questioning looks from everyone around him except for Natasha who just gave him a supportive smile.

"Uh - um..."

Tony rolled his eyes. "His _girlfriend_."

"You have a girlfriend?!" Clint exclaimed as he sat back down from getting a new drink.

"You did not tell us?" Thor asked.

"_That's_ where you've been sneaking off to!" Clint added and Steve got the distinct feeling that Clint had attempted to follow him a few times.

"What's she like?" Pepper asked. "Where did you meet?"

Steve motioned for the sudden burst of questions to stop, "We met at a library a few weeks ago. I uh...I didn't want to tell you just yet because well I've only just met her really and I _really_ like her."

"You don't trust us?" Tony sounded hurt.

"_No_! I trust you, but you knowing...it feels more serious and I don't know what to do with that."

"Steve, if you like her that much we'll behave." Clint promised making Steve smiled, if Clint is making promise's you know he's serious.

"I'll make sure of it." Pepper and Natasha spoke in unison.

"Tasha, you don't look surprised." Clint observed.

"She knew. She's been giving me advice."

"And dancing lessons! That's why!" Steve nodded at Clint's exclamation of understanding.

"When are we going to meet her?" Tony asked.

"Soon I guess, now you know. Just please...be nice."

"Tomorrow. As long as the world isn't going to end. Again."

"I'll invite her over then..." Steve spoke hesitantly.

Tony beamed at him and the others rolled their eyes at Tony but didn't argue all wanting to meet Evie, "We'll make sure he behaves." Pepper thought to repeat to Steve who relaxed considerably.


	4. Tumblr

**AN: Hope you enjoy! Please R&R.**

The next day Steve met Evie in the lobby and she smiled nervously at him. "Hey,"

"Hello." Steve greeted her with a kiss and then led her into the elevator, "I'd like to apologise in advance for them...well...for Tony."

"Why?"

"I'm not completely sure yet."

"Ah." Evie nodded in understanding.

"Please, fill free to tell Tony to shut up at _any_ time."

"Just Tony?"

"Well any of them, but Tony's the most likely that you'll need to."

"Ah, fair enough." Evie giggled nervously, "I feel like I'm coming to meet your parents."

"I'm sure that would be worse. My father was a very strict man, he was caring but strict."

"Your mother?"

Steve smiled softly in memory, "She'd never let me forget how lucky I am."

Evie was about to ask something else when the elevator stopped and the doors opened into the common room where all the Avengers were inside, Pepper and Bruce were in the kitchen cooking but they stopped when the elevator doors opened and everyone else stood up politely.

Tony stepped forward holding out his hand, "Evie Rae! Pleasure to meet you."

"And you Mr Stark." Evie spoke politely shaking his hand, Tony pulled her in to kiss her cheek and Evie blushed, all she could think was literally _Tony Stark!_  
Steve noticed her blush and glared at Tony who when noticing the glare shrugged innocently but grinned at him knowing _exactly_ why Steve was glaring,

"Please, call me Tony. Meet Clint, Natasha, Thor, Bruce and Pepper." Evie greeted them all with a smile and a wave and everyone greeted her just as cheerfully.

"You're just in time for dinner," Bruce told her kindly and Steve led her to the dinner table.

Tony sat down at the head leaving his right and left for Bruce and Pepper. Steve usually sat at the other end but this time he'd asked to swap seats with Thor and sat down beside Evie with Clint and Natasha opposite them.

Pepper begun to serve up the pasta bake and Bruce sorted out the drinks.

"Nice Tumblr you have Evie." Tony spoke up with a smirk as the other two served up, "'221B-Serenity-Camelot-TARDIS' was it?"

Evie's eyes widened and she blushed, burring her head in her hands. "Crap! How did you find that? You know I'm going to have to change my URL now?"

"Don't bother. We already know your e-mail and pass. We've also got tracks on your I.P."

"And by we," Bruce said with a roll of his eyes, "He means himself and JARVIS."

"Tumblr? What's that?" Steve asked.

"The end of your social life." Evie answered before looking at Tony curiously again.

"You mentioned Steve's name a few times and JARVIS runs a scan for it." Tony explained.

"Who's Jarvis?"

"I am JARVIS." JARVIS spoke up and Evie jumped.

"He's an A.I," Bruce explained as he and Pepper sat down, "He basically runs the tower."

"You have a fully functional AI System?" Evie exclaimed excitedly as Tony nodded.

"Best one in the world."

"That is the most awesome thing like _ever_! JARVIS, do you know who I am?"

"Miss Evelyn Rae."

"What are we eating?"

"Pasta Bake." JARVIS somehow managed to sound patronizing but Evie didn't seem to notice.

"That is so cool! What else can you do?"

Every screen in the common room switched on along with the cooker and microwave before switching off again, "And much more."

"That's somewhat unsettling but awesome."

"Thank you." Both Tony and JARVIS spoke up in unison and Tony glared at the ceiling.

"Why did you call him JARVIS?"

"What else should I have called him?"

Evie shrugged, "Vera."

Tony's eyes widened and he grinned mischievously, "Well my days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle." Evies eye widened along with his, Steve and Thor looked confused whilst the other's all chuckled in apparent understanding.

"So, how did you two meet?" Clint asked seeming to want to change the subject.

"I work in the library down the road, Steve was in there reading and I recognised the book he was holding so I had to talk to him, I didn't realise he's...well who he is until later."

"And you managed to actually speak to her Capsicle. I'm proud of you." Tony grinned a sarcastic-proud smile. "When we went to a bar once it took him ages before he even noticed the barmaid was flirting with him even then I had to point it out to him and after that, he could barely talk to her."

"I noticed, I just wasn't interested." Steve lied unconvincingly.

"Yeah, and I'm in love with Bruce." Tony muttered sarcastically, Bruce's eyes widened.

"Took you long enough to admit it." Clint then addressed Pepper. "Sorry Pepper, I'll always be here for you." Clint reached over and patted Pepper's hand. She just rolled her eyes while the others snorted in amusement.

Tony sighed dramatically, "Alright, you caught me. Come on Bruce-y." Tony grabbed Bruce's hand and pulled him into a stand position, "Please, excuse us."

"Uh..." Bruce looked around pleadingly while the others just laughed.

Evie grinned, she couldn't believe the family atmosphere that the team held, it was fun and relaxing nothing like she was expecting, when she glanced at Steve she saw his shoulders relaxed. The only other time she'd seen him so relaxed was when they were alone watching a movie together, but as soon as other people joined them he tensed up. It was only a slight motion but she knew it was a definite – if subconscious – sign of trust.

"So Evie, how often do you post?" Tony asked once he sat back down with a teasing grin bringing Evie out of her thoughts.

Evie sighed, "Usually every night but I occasionally miss a night."

"Don't worry Evie; I'll block him from Tumblr." Bruce spoke up.

"Thank you Dr Banner." Evie spoke at the same time of Tony saying: "Hey! You can't do that! It's a public site."

"Please call me Bruce." Bruce told Evie ignoring Tony, Evie grinned at him and nodded not noticing everyone's slight breath of relief at Evie's casual atmosphere around Bruce, she wasn't scared of him.

Natasha turned to Evie deciding to change to subject, "So, Evie tell us about yourself?"

"Not much to say, I work in the library, I have 3 room-mates. Sherlock, Mycroft and Irene,"

"You live in the 1800's?" Clint interrupted.

Evie laughed, "No, their parents were fans of the books. Irene and they just bonded over the books, by extension me 'cause me and Irene grew up together."

"Which books do you speak of?" Thor asked.

"Sherlock Holmes. Very famous books. Sherlock Holmes is a detective, and an amazing one. You should read them."

"I shall. May I borrow them from your library?"

"Of course, come down tomorrow with Steve, I'll sort you out a library card and you can take them out."

"Thank you." Evie smiled nervously at the Demi-God who beamed in return.

"Where did you meet Sherlock and Mycroft?" Pepper asked conversationally a few minutes later.

"In Middle school and we all went to the same High School and university."

"What did you study in university?"

"Computer Science."

"And you now own a library?"

Evie laughed and shrugged, "I love working at my library."

"What did your roommates study?"

"Sherlock did Music and Teaching – he's a music teacher. Irene did phycology - she's a therapist. Mycroft funnily enough went for Law - he's a lawyer. Finally finished law school a few months ago."

"Is Mycroft older than Sherlock?"

"Nope, they're identical twins."

"Damn, that would've been funnier." Tony faked looking annoyed.

Evie smiled at everyone, "How did you two meet?" she asked gesturing between Pepper and Tony.

"I needed an assistant, had some interviews. She was the best and the sexiest so I chose her."

"How romantic..." Pepper murmured but grinned as Tony kissed her cheek.

The dinner conversation seemed to flow after that and they stayed at the table for a while talking and getting to know Evie and she got to know the rest of the Avengers, somehow Tony managed to behave but Steve was quite sure that both Bruce and Pepper had their feet ready to stomp on Tony's if he got out of line.

"Should we move to the lounge and get comfy?" Tony suggested finally.

"Splendid idea," Thor agreed as everyone stood up.

"I'll give Evelyn a quick tour of the tower if you don't mind?" Steve started, glancing at Evie whose eyes widened excitedly when he said that.

Tony's eyes twinkled mischievously, "Go fondue, it's fine."

"Fondue?" Evie asked confused while Steve blushed.

"H-how do you...I mean...I...uh..."

Tony started laughing loudly while everyone else looked between the two men, "What is this...fondue you speak of?" Thor asked.

"Bread and cheese I think." Natasha answered sounding as confused as the others.

"Yeah. Bread and cheese." Steve squeaked quickly leading a confused Evie to the elevator, Tony was still laughing as the door closed and Steve pressed a button.

"Are you going to explain?" Evie asked curiously and Steve blushed deeper.

"Just a stupid comment I made to Howard...Tony's father." Steve answered hesitantly, "Back before the ice this is."

"Ok...?" Evie was obviously waiting for more but Steve didn't plan on explaining.

Quickly but not quickly enough for Steve, the elevator doors opened, arriving on his floor and he gave Evie a quick tour of that floor and some of the other floors, including the library.

"Whoa, why do you come to mine if there's..._this_?"

"Uh...at first I came because I've read all of them that interest me. More than half are science-y."

"At first?"

"Yeah..." Steve blushed, "I come to see you now."

"Ah." Evie attempted and failed to hide her grin so she turned to look at a shelf of books.

"Tony loves all the classics," Steve explained trying to change the subject.

"The place is really nice."

"I come in here to read, or just to think." Steve admitted and Evie smiled.

"I do that, with my own library."

Steve smiled back at her, they both relaxed and Steve held out his hand confidently which Evie took with a grin as she put the book back. "We should get back, before Tony sends out a search party."

Evie chuckled and allowed Steve to lead her back to the common room where everyone was already sitting around chatting, leaving a nice couple-spaced gap in the middle of the semi-circle where the two sat down.

"Hot Choco." Clint pointed out the two mugs on the table in front of them. "Mini Marshmallows and cream."

"Oh wow." Evie's eyes widened as she picked up the mug and sniffed at it, grinning.

"Oh yeah, Evie I almost forgot. I'm having a party next week." Tony got a few confused looks from the rest of the Avengers, "You are your room-mates are invited."

Evie shared a surprised glance with Steve who shrugged, "Yeah. That'd be awesome. Uh, when?"

"Thursday." It didn't sound planned but the Avengers were quite used to Tony throwing random parties every so often so they didn't react.  
"Sure, I'll tell the others."

"Great."

"What's this party celebrating?" Thor asked.

Tony shrugged, "Steve getting a girlfriend I guess."

Both Steve and Evie blushed at that, Steve opened his mouth to add something but was cut off by Natasha placing a hand on his knee, "There's no point Steve." Steve relented and nodded. Natasha was always right.

"So uh, Tony how did you create JARVIS?" Evie asked to change the subject.

"Oh it was easy,"

From there, most of the Avengers tuned out the technobabble and fell into another comfortable conversation; 11O'clock came around too quickly when Evie's phone started to ring with the ringtone of the Doctor Who theme. "Sorry, I need to take this before they think you murdered me." Tony laughed at that and everyone nodded at her to take the call, "Hello?"

**"Evie, you're ok?"** Sherlock asked the moment she answered.

Evie laughed, "I'm fine Sherly, they haven't murdered me."

**"Good. You do realise it's getting late though?"  
**

"I hadn't been keeping time. _Sorry Dad_," She said it with such heavy sarcasm that the Avengers started laughing. She could almost hear Sherlock rolling his eyes.

**"Well don't be **_**too**_** late."**

"I won't. See you."

**"Bye."** Sherlock cut off and Evie sent an apologetic look to the others.

"I should probably get going before they decided you've kidnapped me instead. I've had a really great time, thank you."

"It was lovely meeting you." Pepper stood to hug her while the others murmured a round of 'goodbye' and 'see you on Thursday'

"I'll walk you home?" Steve offered.

"It's late and cold cap, I can give you a lift instead?" Tony offered, everyone knew that it didn't matter about it being dark but the ones that knew him well enough could tell that Tony wanted to talk to Evie alone.

Evie glanced between the two men and shrugged, "That'd be cool."

Tony nodded and stood leading her into the elevator, Steve followed after a moment. "I'm not going to kill her Cap," Tony muttered, Steve ignored him and Evie giggled.

"The body can be drained of blood in 8.6 seconds given adequate vacuuming systems." Natasha called over and Steve frowned.

"Well that's disturbing." Steve muttered but Evie was giggling and just walked into elevator followed but a grinning Tony and confused Steve.

They reached the bottom floor and Tony led them into the backroom where there were cars, loads of them parked up together. "Whoa..." Evie murmured and Tony laughed.

"Pick one." Evie's eyes widened and she wandered between the cars for a minute before pointing at Iron Man themed Ferrari. "Good choice." he grinned.

"I'll see you soon Steve?" Evie spoke up.

"Yeah," Steve agreed walking towards Evie.

As much as Tony loved to embarrass Steve he did look away for a minute giving them a moment of privacy. Once they separated Steve walked back to Tony and placed a hand on Tony's shoulder, leaning close to talk quietly? "Please don't...be embarrassing."

"I'll be good." Tony winked at him and gestured for Evie to get into the car before jumping in himself and driving around Steve who waved and started towards the elevator. JARVIS opened the garage door letting Tony speed through. "Where do you live?" he asked once they were on the road.

Evie told him the address and Tony did a U turn to head in the right direction. "I had fun. thank you for letting me come."

Tony smirked, "Steve getting a girlfriend. How could we _not_ meet you?"

Evie laughed, "So he's as shy as I've assumed?"

"Well, around women he is." Tony grinned, "But according to my father he had barely spoke to any _females_ before he got the serum."

"I thought so."

"Yeah." Tony nodded.

"What did you mean by..._Fondue_?"

Tony chuckled, "According to my dad back during the war he asked if he and Peggy, I'm hoping Steve told you about Peggy?" Evie nodded and Tony grinned relieved, he did not fancying informing Steve's current about his ex, "Yeah, Steve asked Peggy if my dad and her were Fonduing."

"That's just bread and cheese though?"

"Yeah, Steve didn't know that."

"Ah." Evie giggled, "Makes more sense now."

Tony grinned and they sat in silence for a minute until he swallowed carefully and glanced at Evie. "Look, Steve and I may not see eye to eye but I promise that if you ever hurt him, there's one thing you can count on - I will..._all_ of us will," Tony smirked, "Avenge him."

Evie smirked at the pun but nodded seriously, "Fair enough."

"Good." Tony smirked and stopped the car, "I look forward to seeing you on Thursday, Evie."

"And you Tony. It was great to finally meet you."

Tony grinned and waved as Evie climbed out of the car and went inside. Tony waited a moment before speeding back, a grin on his face.

Once he got back everyone except Steve had already gone to bed, "Thank you Tony."

Tony shrugged, "You didn't hear what we said in the car." he smirked at Steve who rolled his eyes knowing that Tony was joking. "Pepper gone to bed?"

"Yeah."

Tony nodded, "G'night Steve."

"Goodnight Tony."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**I met the Avengers today.**  
**JEES WHY DID I SAY THAT SO CASUALLY?!**  
**But honestly, they are reeeeally domestic. I was in the elevator before I met them, nerves eating me up, Steve apologises for Tony and**  
**"You're just in time for dinner." Bruce, the Hulk! Told me from in the kitchen Cooking! Like actually cooking!**  
**Don't you find it weird the Avengers actually eat? I mean, Steve for example, he eats like four million plates of food and still look's like the amazing guy he is. I guess he has the serum to thank for that though.**  
**We eat; Tony tells me he knows about this blog,**  
**(UGH WHAT AM I DOING WRITING THIS WHEN HE STILL KNOWS?!)**  
**And I have a heart attack while Thor looks like he's pondering the meaning of life. Tony is a browncoat and the Science Bro's are making a Sonic Screwdriver. I mean, even just a model is awesome, what if you had an ACTUAL WORKING Sonic Screwdriver? I'd be first in line. They also discussed something I have been asked by Tony not to post cause it'll make millions or something (Am I allowed to mention it? I don't know) Clint and Natasha seem really awesome, they didn't talk as much as Tony but I don't think anyone talks as much as Tony. Bruce seems to be quite a withdrawn guy didn't give much information about himself but I think that might just be because of the big green guy. Thor is a very cheerful dude but he's a look cleverer than I've seen people give him credit for.**  
**The meal ends. Clint and Natasha clean up the dishes, well pile them by the sink and Steve states he cleans them in the morning before he makes breakfast. Steve wants to give me a tour and Tony tells us to "go fondue".**  
**Apparently this is some stupid comment Steve made to Howard, the man who invented the Serum and is also Tony's dad which I find out later when TONY STARK gives me a lift home! Steve looks like he's about to implode of embarrassment. Everyone else in the room looks confused.**  
**Steve gives me a tour of the tower. Even from the outside, you know it'll be awesome, BUT THAT DOES NOT GIVE IT JUSTICE!**  
**Well, he doesn't give me a tour of the whole tower (Steve said that he hadn't even been on some floors yet), only the main rooms. It is freaking AMAZING. Like, wow amazing. Tony has an indoor greyhound racing track. WHY or HOW Steve nor me know, and apparently Tony ordered it to be built when he was drunk, went out the next day, so the people built it anyway.**  
**Steve's floor is pretty cool. It would take too long to describe, but it's really old fashioned and he has a modern radio that looks like a 'wireless'.**  
**The library is about to close soon, so I have to log off for now, but I shall update you soon, people!**  
**(By the way, thanks to the AMAZING 50 people who have followed me over the past ten days! Am I Tumblr famous yet?)  
[Oct 18, 2012]**

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
Hey there, Evie! Nice blog you got going. Never would've thought of Steve as 'adorable'! And no, you're never going to live this blog down.  
_OH GOD TONY NO GET OFF MY BLOG I THOUGHT BRUCE BANNED YOU! HOW?  
_54 Notes. [Oct 19, 2012]

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
Yes, they did. Internet Café's are wonderful things.  
_Tony, I will tell Pepper about this!  
_76 Notes. [Oct 19, 2012]

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
No, there's no need for that!  
_Done! I've told her.  
_93 Notes. [Oct 19, 2012]

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
Evie! Now Pepper's gone and banned me from watching TV. Can I come round to yours later to watch TV? Or has Steve still not paid you?  
_Serves you right. No, you cannot use my TV. Yes, Steve has paid me for it!  
_120 Notes. [Oct 19, 2012]

Message from: Anon  
Is it really THE Iron man messaging you? Are you really going out with THE Steve Rogers?  
_Yes, anon. I really am dating Captain America.  
_43 Notes. [Oct 20, 2012]

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
Title: PROOF THAT I AM IRON MAN!  
Attached: My third ab  
There you go! That is me, holding a sign with 'Pepper smells' on it, with Bruce and Pepper in the background. I've even got my shirt off and everything! That is the Arc Reactor!  
_Tony, you really didn't need to do that…  
_3102 Notes. [Oct 20, 2012]

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
Yeah I did. Hay, I've got loads of followers now. Not sure what they're expecting…  
_IDK TONY MAYBE MORE PICTURES OF YOU SHIRTLESS!?  
_143 Notes. [Oct 21, 2012]

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
Attached: I'm sexy and I know  
Don't tell me you don't like it? ;-)  
_Ok, I won't tell you.  
_2839 Notes. [Oct 21, 2012]

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!  
_Hahaha! Mine is an evil laugh!  
_1261 Notes. [Oct 21, 2012]

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
STEVE JUST BLEW UP THE LIGHTS IN THE GYM! HOW DID HE EVEN DO THAT?  
_You're paying for it.  
_204 Notes. [Oct 23, 2012]

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
He's your boyfriend.  
_He lives with you.  
_167 Notes. [Oct 23, 2012]

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
No fair.  
_You're the one who designed a floor for him.  
_353 Notes. [Oct 23, 2012]

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
Bruce helped.  
_I'm aware Tony.  
_435 Notes. [Oct 23, 2012]

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
Are you coming tomorrow?  
_Yes, all of us are.  
_103 Notes. [Oct 24, 2012]

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
Should I make sure Steve has protection?  
_TONY!  
_824 Notes. [Oct 24, 2012]

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
Don't worry; I'll give him the talk when I get home.  
_TONY! You DON'T need to do that!  
_573 Notes. [Oct 24, 2012]

Tony grinned as he walked into the common room, un-surprised to find Steve already there drawing. Clint was also there in the kitchen, "Hello," Tony greeted announcing himself, Clint sent a distracted wave and Steve smiled at him. Tony went straight towards Clint speaking in a low voice, "Need to give Steve the talk. How do you fancy helping me embarrass him to an inch of his life?"

"I say challenge accepted."

Tony smirked as Clint picked up two mugs of coffee, "Follow my lead."

Message from: 221B-Serenity-Camelot-TARDIS  
TONY! PLEASE DON'T!  
_Hay, I got Clint on board! This will be fun.  
_395 Notes. [Oct 24, 2012]

Tony stalked towards Steve with Clint behind him and they both sat on either side of Steve who looked up glancing at them confused, all of the Avengers had their spots, they never said it but they always sat in the same seats unless they had to talk about something to someone else. Realising this Steve put his pad down, took the offered coffee and rose in eyebrow in question. "Steve."

"Tony."

"We understand that you've been in this time for a while and we taught you everything we needed to know to survive. But now you have a girlfriend and we need to have _the talk_."

"The Talk?"

"Yes."

"Which-"

"Things have changed a lot since your time," Clint interrupted, "I understand that condoms were available but-"

"_Condoms_?!" Steve immediately went red staring between the two men with wide eyes, somehow both men managed to keep a straight face.

"JARVIS please explain to Steve what a condom is?"

"I know what-"

"A Condom is a latex barrier device used during coitus or better known as sexual intercourse. It is used to prevent pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases by placing it on an erect penis and it physically stops the ejaculated semen from entering the sexual partner."

By the end of that Tony was mentally calculating whether or not Steve would blend in with his red Iron Man suits.

Tony reached into an inside pocket of his jacket pulling out his wallet, he opened it up and pulled out a condom, "Extra-large of course." He commented with a wink as he put his wallet back and keeping the condom out, "Now we need to teach you how to use it, Clint could you find a banana please."

Tony was certain that it was _only_ because of the assassin and S.H.I.E.L.D training that Clint managed to keep a straight face as he nodded and stood up, Steve attempted to protest and stand up but Tony pushed him back down with a single hand on his chest pleased when Steve didn't use his strength against Tony.

Clint returned holding a couple of banana's, "Just encase it goes wrong and you squash the banana. Although penis's...Peni?"

"Penis's I think." Tony nodded.

"Yeah. Penis's are not as easily squashed as a banana, unless Thor's giving you a hand-job." Clint shrugged at Steve's alarmed look, "We don't judge bud."

"So, you have to be careful when opening the wrapper so not to rip the actual latex. Lucky you can't get drunk; it's one of the hardest things to do when you're drunk."

"Pun intended?" Clint asked, Tony grinned and shook his head.

Tony handed Steve the condom and stared at him, Steve just stared back slightly refusing to play along. Tony relented first; Clint however could do this for a very long time. Eventually Steve had to relent if that would make them go away quicker. He could fight his way out but there was no point, they would only gang up on him later.

It was when Tony was explaining how to put it onto the banana when he was cut off by the elevator doors opening and Bruce walked in. Steve took their distraction as a chance to stand up and run towards the elevator. "Evie texted me." Bruce commented slowly his eyebrows raising at the banana in Clint's hands with a condom half way down, "Saying 'Save Steve.' Now I understand why. Sorry I didn't get here earlier." He added to the still bright red super solider.

"We haven't even gotten to the best part!" Tony complained.

"I don't think it'll be needed, if Steve has any questions he can come to me."

"Thank you." Steve whispered before leaving as quickly as he possibly could.

Message from: 221B-Serenity-Camelot-TARDIS  
Texted Bruce! He's on his way!  
_He just came. Damn you for spoiling our fun!  
_406 Notes. [Oct 24, 2012]


	5. P A R T Y

Thursday came too quickly in Steve's opinion. He'd never enjoyed Tony's parties but this time he realised the fact that he'd have Evie to keep him interested.  
Evie, Irene, Sherlock and Mycroft turned up when the party was already in full swing. They stepped out of the elevator together looking around in wonder. Irene, Sherlock and Mycroft all went straight to an Avenger and started fan-girl'ing or fan-boy'ing.

Steve was drinking a beer when Evie dropped down in front of him, "You look like you're having fun?" she asked sarcastically.

Steve smiled, "Yeah, I'm not a huge..._partier_."

"Well I'll get a dance out of you soon enough Mr." Evie grinned, "First I'm gonna grab myself a drink."

"No, I uh..." he handed her the orange drink on the table beside him, "I only got it a few minutes ago when JARVIS told me that you were outside."

"Thanks, What is it?" Evie took a sniff of it.

"Uh...Harvey Wallbanger."

Evies eyes widened and she sipped at it, "Mm, thank you! How did you know I like these?"

"A few weeks ago you ordered one and said 'Mmm, This is totally my favourite drink.'" His voice went up high pitched in an attempted to imitate her making Evie laugh.

"And you remembered. Thank you."

Steve shrugged, "Did the others come with you?"

"Yeah, they're dancing."

Steve was about to ask her for a dance when the song changed and gasps and excited cheers went up around the room, including Evie who jumped up at the tune grabbing his hand and putting the drink down. "Come on! We _have_ to dance to this one!"

"What is it?"

"The Macarena!" Evie exclaimed, "You've never heard it?" Steve shook his head; he didn't recognise it from Tony's other parties, "Come on! Just copy my movements!"

"Uh ok..." Steve followed her onto the dance floor where everyone seemed to have positioned themselves into rows and columns. Evie positioned herself to Steve's side and started wiggling her hips before putting both her hands out one at a time in time with the music. Steve couldn't help but laugh as he copied her hand movements startled when everyone jumped yelling 'Hey Macarena!'

Steve copied her and quickly got the hang of the dance. He noticed that Clint, Natasha and Bruce were doing it to Steve's surprise. Tony was going full out wiggling his hips. Some woman was teaching Thor, Who Evie was later introduced to as Jane. Pepper was forcing Tony's friend, Rhodey to do it as well.

"I _can't believe_ you've never heard that song!" Evie exclaimed once the song finished and everyone slowly dispersed, "Aren't they usually played at these parties?"

Steve shook his head, "Not that I've heard."

"They are _the best_ more _classic_ party songs _ever_."

"And I'm the genius that asked the DJ to play them." Irene spoke up from behind Evie, and nodded at Steve in greeting.

"I don't usually agree with that but I'll have to today." Evie laughed.

"I'm getting you for a dance later Mister." Irene directed it towards Steve, smirking.

"Not before me." Evie argued and Irene winked.

"Well I still need to get a dance with _The Tony Stark_!" with that Irene jogged off towards where Tony was stood talking to Bruce. Evie started to sit down but was stopped by Steve holding out his hand.

"May I have this dance?"

"Definitely." Evie giggled as Steve started to lead her onto the dance floor.

Steve was nervous; this would be the first time to put Natasha's teaching to practise. As he walked he caught Natasha's eye, she was dancing with Clint looking more relaxed than she normally did surrounded by complete strangers, and she winked at him sending across a silent 'You can do it'.

The dance started off easy, with rock and pop music which he and Natasha had gone over and Steve got the hang of it almost as quickly as the Macarena.

After a few dances Evie was dragged off by Sherlock and Steve was taken by Pepper and somehow he managed to dance with _all_ of the Avengers and each of Evie's roommates during the entirety of the day.

He was currently dancing with Natasha when something caught his eye. Tony Stark stood by the punch bowl.

Kissing Clint.

Clint was pushed against the table, his eyes were wide as he struggled to push the drunk man off him, until a laughing Pepper came and pulled him off.

"Pepper!" Tony exclaimed happily before he frowned and looked between Pepper and a shocked looking Clint, "If you're Pepper then..." he glared at Clint as if Clint had betrayed him badly, "You no Pepper!" he slurred.

"No man! I bloody ain't Pepper!" Clint wiped at his lips and glared at Tony who just looked confused.

"Sorry about that Clint," Pepper apologised with a barely concealed laugh, "Come on Tony, let's get you some coffee, and sober you up so I can have a _proper_ dance with you."

Steve and Natasha looked at each other and smirked, "I should go make sure Tony hasn't traumatised Clint."

Steve chuckled and let her go turning to look for Evie, finding her at the drinks table talking to Darcy, "Yeah and they stole my Ipod!" Darcy was complaining as Steve reached them.

"Seriously? Why?" Evie laughed.

Darcy shrugged, "I got it back thank Thor but still!"

"Darcy! Thank Thor is _not_ going to become a _thing_!" Jane interjected from the other side of the table.

"Why are we thanking me?" Thor asked with his arm around Jane.

"Like thank God but since you're a God then Thank Thor!" Darcy explained making Evie giggle.

"I am _so_ using that!" Evie exclaimed.

"See, catching on!" Darcy held up a hand and Evie slapped it in a high 5 motion. "We should so hang out Evie! It'd be awesome!"

"Yeah it would!"

"I know this awesome cupcake place we should totally go to."

"I _love_ cupcakes!"

"They are good."

"Sorry to interrupt," Steve spoke up, "But may I have another dance?"

"Well sexy, you may." Darcy answered laughing when Steve struggled to correct her that he was talking about Evie. Darcy stepped back, "Have fun." She winked at them and patted Steve butt.

Evie rolled her eyes and took his hand and placed the other on his shoulder. Steve was hesitant but placed his hand on her waist as they stated swaying along with the music, one foot, the next and another until Steve relaxed into the dance.

They danced quietly for the next half an hour as the party winded down and everyone started leaving until only a few people were left along with the Avengers and Evie, Irene, Mycroft and Sherlock.

They all split into couples, Mycroft was dancing with a guy named Greg while Sherlock was dancing with Darcy. Bruce and Irene were dancing together; Pepper and slightly sobered up Tony were together, Clint and Natasha, Thor had brought Jane, and Steve and Evie.

All couples were dancing slow as the song Next to Me started to play. Evie laid her head on Steve shoulder and relaxed into it. They had only known each other a month but it felt like much longer and she never wanted this moment to end.

Steve couldn't believe it, he was dancing with Evie. The Woman he loves. Steve faltered in his steps for a moment as he realised that it's true. He _loves_ Evie.

It was _well_ into early morning when the music was switched off and the last guest left except for Evie and her room-mates, "I'll show you all spare rooms?" Bruce offered.

"Ho' are you ssstill sober?" Irene slurred.

"Would you rather _me_ lose control?" Bruce couldn't help but ask.

"What's wrong with you losin' control?"

Bruce rose an eyebrow confused, "I uh...the other guy? The Hulk?"

"Ooo right!" Irene giggled.

"We can make our way home...?" Mycroft suggested nervously.

Bruce smiled unsurprised at Mycrofts reaction and shook his head, "You're welcome to but I didn't drink so I'm in control and we have more than enough spare rooms. Plus Evie's asleep," Bruce gestured to Evie who was fast asleep and curled around Steve on the sofa.

"Ah, we can wake her. She won't mind." Sherlock suggested but Steve shook his head.

"Let her sleep, it's fine."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I'm quite comfortable." Steve answered honestly.

"Alright," Sherlock hesitated before following Bruce and the others to the elevator murmuring a goodnight to everyone.

When Evie woke up the first thing she noticed was that she was lying on a person. An _extremely_ comfortable person.

The next thing she noticed was that this person was so warm and was...laughing?

Evie frowned and slowly opened her eyes, and came face to face with the back of the couch. It took a moment before she realised the person she was lying on was still laughing and Evie turned her head to see Steve. Looking up at her with a grin on his face.

"Morning." He greeted sounding amused.

"Mm'ning." Evie mumbled turning her head so that she could see the rest of the lounge from her spot on top of Steve, her head rested on his broad chest. "Wh'ts t'm?"

"I don't know." Steve shrugged as much as he could from underneath Evie. "You're lying on my arm with the watch."

"Oh," Evie sighed softly, contently. "F'one?"

"In your pocket I think."

Evie moved her arm from underneath Steve's and lifted it towards herself, struggling with the blanket that she hadn't noticed before and them pushed it in her pocket, frowning when she couldn't find her phone and Steve was laughing even more. "Wha'?"

"That's _my_ pocket."

"Oh..." Evie giggled and moved to her own pocket eventually pulling out her phone, "It's 6:30." Evie closed her eyes again and rested it back on Steve's chest making him laugh again.

"Comfy?"

"_Very_."

Steve laughed again surprised at how comfortable he felt with Evie lying on top of him, not physically because his arm was going numb, but he didn't feel as embarrassed as he knew he probably would had it been anyone else.

It took Evie a few minutes before everything caught up with her and she realised that she was actually lying on _top_ of Steve and slowly she opened her eyes moving so that she was leaning on her arms on his chest.

He was still grinning looking amused. "Morning." he repeated and Evie grinned.

"Morning. Did we fall asleep here?" She yawned.

Steve nodded, "You did, I didn't want to move you and feel asleep as well."

Evie blushed but Steve just laughed. "What about the blanket?"

"No idea."

Evie nodded and pulled herself forward so she that her face was in line with his, leaning down she kissed him and he kissed her back reaching a hand behind her head running it through her hair.

They separated after a moment and grinned as Evie rolled off him, completely un-dignified but she didn't care, he moved his legs so that she could sit down and he could stretch his arm.

"What time does everyone usually wake up?" Evie asked tiredly.

"Uh, usually around half eight to 9. But after a party it changes. What about your room-mates?"

Evie shrugged, "Usually before me. May I have some breakfast?"

Steve nodded, "Yeah course. I usually make a lot for everyone."

"Oh?"

Steve shrugged, "Yeah, whatever I fancy making."

"And what do you fancy making?"

"...S'morelettes."

"What the heck is that?"

Steve laughed, "It's a s'more inside an omelette. Tony made me try it once."

"A s'more as in, marshmallows and chocolate?"

"Yep." Steve popped the P as Evies eyes widened.

"Steve I know you had to make strange things with just rations but...this is _beyond_ strange."

Steve laughed, "I said the same thing when Tony tried to make me eat it. Come on." he stretched and walked into the connecting kitchen and Evie followed. "Could you grate some cheese please?"

"Louise. Where is it?"

"Louise?"

"Cheese Please Louise. It rhymes." She started matter-of-factly.

"Right..." Steve rose an eyebrow, "Cheese is on the second shelf in the fridge. Grater in the bottom drawer under the breakfast bar."

Evie nodded and got them both, "Plate?"

"Cupboard beside the drawer."

Evie grabbed it and started grating cheese while Steve did the rest. "I'm surprised Tony doesn't have an electronic cheese grater or something like that."

Steve smirked, "He does...did. I kinda, um, broke it. Well. More blowing it up."

"You..._Blew. It. Up._ How?"

Steve shrugged, "I honestly couldn't tell you."

Evie giggled surprised, "I did not expect that. What other things have you blown up?"

"Microwave. Kettle. Coffee Maker. Dishwasher. Lights in the gym... iPhone."

Evie couldn't help it, she started laughing and Steve blushed, "Sorry. Just...How the _hell_ did you do _that_?"

"I was looking for Pepper's number and it just...boom. In my hand." His eyes opened wide as if repeating his shock.

"He screamed like a little girl." Bruce muttered as he walked in, he sounded a lot like Tony startling them both.

"Not like a little girl." Steve objected, "I screamed..."

"A _manly_ scream?" Evie finished and Steve nodded.

"Exactly." Evie and Bruce laughed and Steve scowled but was smiling in amusement.

"What are you making?" Bruce asked.

"S'morlette apparently." Evie answered tensing just slightly as Bruce sat down beside her, Steve noticed and frowned but when Bruce saw his reaction he just shook his head telling Steve not to say anything. He was used to it and wasn't surprised, as long as she didn't run screaming he was ok with it.

"Want me to crush the biscuit?"

"If you could. Thank you."

It wasn't long until Evie's room-mates joined them, Bruce blushed when he saw Irene, she just winked at him. None of them wanted to try the S'morlette but Steve managed to convince Evie to try it and her reaction convinced the others.

They couldn't get enough of it.

Clint and Natasha joined them a moment later.

9:13 soon came about and Steve frowned when he didn't see Thor marching out of the elevator and making some pop-tarts, "Where's Thor?" he asked curiously.

"Left early this morning to go meet Jane's family and do his own thing for a while." Natasha answered. "He told us last night."

"Oh?" Steve frowned trying to remember when Thor told them.

"You'd already fallen asleep." Natasha thought to tell him and Steve nodded.

"Oh."

Pepper and a zombie-fied Tony walked in at that moment a little later than usual but that was normal after a party. Tony sat down beside Clint who moved away slightly making everyone around them smirk.

Tony frowned at them but didn't comment; instead he went straight to the coffee, frowning deeper when he saw Evie and her room-mates as if he couldn't remember who they are, he looked at Thors spot with even more confusion but just sipped at his coffee.

2 and a half mugs later he grabbed his s'morlette and he realised everyone around him was smirking and watching him, "Wha-?" Tony looked at everyone but nobody answered, finally he noticed how far Clint was from him and frowned _even_ deeper, "What did I- _SHIT_! I kissed you didn't I?" Clint scowled and nodded.

Tony grimaced and took another large gulp of coffee and wiped at his mouth, "Why?!"

"You thought I was Pepper." Tony grimaced more and wiped at his mouth again.

"Does this happen often?" Mycroft asked Natasha, laughing.

Natasha nodded, "Yeah. When Tony gets drunk he usually does something stupid. Usually Bruce he snogs though."

Bruce, who was listening grimaced at the memory, Tony did often come up to him yelling, "Bruce! My awesome science buddy! You know you're so smart and clever right?" Before placing a horrible sloppy kiss on his lips and stumbling away.

For that, the group were convinced something _other_ than science happened in the lab every day despite what Bruce tried to convince them otherwise.

They spoke for a few more minutes before they heard the elevator open, everyone turned to see who it was. A dark skinned man with an eye patch and long dark coat stalked into the room, his coat blowing out behind him, Evie glanced at Steve and then back at the man.

"Sir." Natasha greeted politely.

"Fury! What a _pleasant_ surprise!" Tony greeted less politely with a huge grin on his face that looked less than happy.

"Don't worry Stark; I'm not here for long."

"Something happened?" Clint asked.

"No. I'm here for your...new friends." Fury's good eye swept over Evie, Mycroft, Sherlock and Irene.

"I'm sorry sir, but who are you?" Mycroft asked trying to speak politely despite his confusion and slight fear.

"Director Fury. He's head of S.H.I.E.L.D." Tony explained. "The organisation that put together...us."

"Why do you need to speak to us?" Evie asked, "Sir." She added after a moment of seeing Natasha's warning glance.

Fury allowed the corners of his mouth to twitch upwards into a smirk as he stared at Evie. "If you are going to continue this...relationship with Captain Rogers and the rest of the Avengers, you need to sign this." He placed a large wad of paper on the table, 4 groups of them. "Declaration of secrecy. Once you sign this, if you reveal anything you hear about the Avengers or from the Avengers, it becomes illegal for you to tell the public any of it."

Mycroft immediately picked up the document and begun reading through it, "I'm sorry sir but I refuse to sign anything without reading it first."

"_Anything_ or just stuff that's Avenger-y?" Evie asked.

Fury's eyebrows rose high to the top of his head at Evie's wording, "I'm afraid I don't understand your question?"

"She means can she mention the domestic things?" Irene asked, "You need to learn Evie-speak."

"All the rules are in there." He pointed at the pad of paper, "I suggest all you read it. Take a day, Agent Romanov?"

"I'll send them up to you when it's done." Natasha promised.

"Good." With that, Fury nodded at everyone before turning and leaving the building.

"Nick Fury has left the building!" Tony announced making everyone laugh, even Natasha chuckled.

"He came be a bit...terse." Bruce agreed.

"Would you mind if I took this home to read through them?" Mycroft asked.

"You're a lawyer right?" Clint asked and Mycroft nodded. "Sure, just be careful and don't lose them."

"Of course."

After breakfast everyone separated to do their own thing, Sherlock, Mycroft and Irene made their way home Evie promised to be back later instead wanting the spend the day with Steve since she had closed the library for the day.

Steve left to get changed and quite soon Evie found herself alone with Bruce. Evie stood awkwardly by the breakfast bar until Bruce glanced around at her from the couch, "You can join me if you want Evie, I don't bite. Well the other guy might, but I don't."

"Uh." Evie's eyes widened and she took a subconscious step back; it hadn't hit her until that moment that this man was the Hulk. He could crush her quite easily. And she's alone with him. The urge to run hit her like a ton of bricks but she took a breath and ignored that feeling, each and every one of the Avengers trusted him enough for him to live here so he's obviously safe and has more control than most people expect.

"Sorry, the others joke and it's become hab-"

Evie shook her head cutting him off and she saw him looking away his brow crinkling in apparent disappointment and guilt. His body tensed apparently waiting for the insults but with another breath Evie smiled at him and stepped closer, his smiled back obviously surprised. "It's fine. Can I sit?"

Bruce was obviously extremely shocked but nodded and gestured at the couch he was sat on and then the other couches just encase Evie didn't want to sit too near, Evie sat on the opposite end of the same couch and turned to face him pulling her legs and feet up to sit comfortably and casually on the chair.

"So Bruce, what do you do around here all day?"

Bruce shrugged, "Work on various projects with Tony really."

"Sounds fun." Evie's voice was dripping with sarcasm and Bruce smirked.

"Can be actually. Once you get used to the ear-splitting loud music and him poking me trying to provoke the other guy."

"He _does_ that?!" Evie exclaimed laughing. Bruce smirked and nodded.

"Yeah, he doesn't have much self-preservation I guess."

"Or he just has a lot of trust." Evie suggested with a shrug, Bruce frowned as if he hadn't even thought of that before.

"Why?"

Evie shrugged, "Can't say I've met the big guy but I've seen him on TV and the like and he's very protective over the team."

"Everyone always tells me that but..."

"But what?" Evie prompted as he trailed off.

"I guess I'm just not used to people liking the other guy."

"Well they should, I'm sure he'll be a lot less angry if people actually spoke to him like a normal person."

"But he's not normal is he?"

Evie shrugged, "You know Hank McCoy?"

"The mutant working in the Government?"

"Yeah. He looks quite terrifying; I heard his 'Name' is Beast. But that doesn't make him not normal. Just, mutant like." Bruce smiled softly and Evie saw his posture relax significantly and a few bricks in his eyes fell down but not completely.

"So what are you and Steve planning to do?"

Evie shrugged, "No idea. Just spend the day together."

"Miss Rae, Steve requires your presence." JARVIS interrupted, Evie jumped and Bruce chuckled.

"Guess I better get used to that."

"Thor thought JARVIS was a voice in his head until he heard Tony and me talking back to JARVIS. Don't tell him I told you."

Evie laughed, "Secrets safe with me." She stood and went into the elevator muttering a 'see you later' to Bruce. She stepped into the elevator pressing for floor 62. That was Steve's floor right?

The elevator rode upwards and when it stopped Evie stepped out and looked around, this wasn't what she remembered from before. It was similar but there was more red, and pictures of Pepper? Ah, must be Tony's floor, Evie realised sheepishly. She turned to go back into the elevator but footsteps caught her attention so she turned to see Tony behind her.

Wearing only boxers.

"Evie? Are you ok?" he asked looking confused.

"Y-yeah." Evie swallowed struggling to look away from the arc reactor and his broad chest, this was _Tony Stark_, she had a crush on him for _years_! Now he was more or less _naked_ in front of her, frowning. Evie noticed he had some scars across his chest but assumed it was to do with the arc reactor. Then Evie realised she needed to explain why she was on his floor, "I was uh...looking for Steve's floor."

"Ah, that's two down." he smirked and seemed to know exactly what she was thinking, at least thought he did until she spoke again.

"That's really bulky." her eyes widened and she went bright red suddenly as Tony frowned in bewilderment looking down at himself, "_Crap_. Sorry, I didn't mean anything, I just mean...I didn't realise it was that big. And...uh and bright but it looks good and uh...Big!"

Tony stared at her completely baffled, "Evie!" he yelled to stop her babbling and Evie immediately closed her mouth. "_What_?"

"Your Arc rector is bulky..." Evie repeated sheepishly and Tony smirked.

"Oh, the _arc reactor_." He winked and Evie blushed darker making Tony laughed, "If you can't remember the floor number just ask JARVIS where you want to go."

"Ah. Right. Thanks." Evie blushed again and all but ran back into the elevator asking JARVIS to take her down to Steve's floor.

"Hey," Steve greeted her as she stepped out on the correct floor this time.

"Hey," Evie smiled shyly, "Sorry, I went to Tony's floor first by accident."

"Woops."

"Woops indeed."

Steve smiled just as shyly, "I uh, was thinking, since you've closed the library for the day, do you want to go out? Like sight-see. I mean, I've always wanted to go to the top of the Empire State building."

Evie grinned, "That sound good to me. Alright if we stop by my place and grab something to get changed into?"

"Course."

As they were lining up to get to the top of the building Steve took Evies hand and she smiled to herself, Steve saw and couldn't help but grin himself, "Have you ever been here before?" Steve asked and Evie shook her head.

"Nope. Been meaning to for years but uh..." Evie hesitated looking away from Steve.

"What's wrong?"

Evie shook her head, "Jacob and I, we planned to come here. But at the time we lived in Portland."

"You used to live in Portland?"

Evie laughed at Steve shook, "Yeah. You didn't know?"

Steve shook his head, "Nope. I mean, you told me you went to University in Ohio, so I just...assumed you lived around there or here in New York."

Evie shook her head as she realised she hadn't actually told Steve that much about her childhood, only the complete and utter _basics_ and even then she spoke more about university than her childhood, "Nope. I grew up in Portland with my aunt and my mum as I told you. If Aunt Maggie lived here in New York you would have met her already, you wouldn't have a choice." Evie chuckled at imaging Aunt Maggie's threats, "And as I told you before Irene lived next door so we more or less grew up together. Met Sherly and Croft. We went off to Uni in Ohio, where I met Jacob. After that Jake and me went back to Portland for a few years while Irene, Sherlock and Mycroft came here to New York. We visited each other all the time though; Maggie was always willing to pay. After Jake...died, there were too many memories of him so I moved in with the idiot room-mates you know."

Steve smirked at that, "Maggie's your aunt right?"

"Great aunt yeah. I actually need to ring her. I haven't spoken to her in _ages_. She still lives in Portland."

"And you're Mom?"

"She died. A few years back."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

Evie shrugged, "I was never very close to her. I mean...yeah, it's sad she's gone but Great Aunt Maggie's still alive and kicking somehow."

"How did your mum pass?"

"Drug overdose."

Steve wasn't sure how to reply to that. "Your dad?"

"Left when I was four."

"Ah." Steve definitely didn't know how to reply to that.

"Anyway, back to the present shall we?" Evie asked cheerfully as they reached the front of the que and Steve smiled.

"Yeah."

The conversation moved to last night's party and soon stepped into the elevator riding up to the top where the couple both gasped, "Wow." Steve breathed. "Back in the war...to have so many lights on would be suicide, at night anyways."

"Good thing this isn't the war then."

Steve chuckled, "Sorry. Habit." Evie smiled lightly leaning closer to him trying to keep warm. Steve hesitantly put his arm around her shoulders making her smile more. "I remember when this was being built."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, it was incredible, biggest thing I'd seen in my life. I mean especially as it was during the great depression. We were quite lucky having a home because my father helped to build it."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah." Steve nodded, "It was the best job he ever got, kept us housed and me to get the medicine I needed."

"Medicine?"

"Yeah, for my asthma and various other medical problems."

"Oh."

"I've always wanted to come here but I haven't had the chance."

"Well you have the chance now."

"I couldn't think of a better time."

**And it feels like I am just to clo-se to love you... [dubstep solo]**  
**Wow. I have that song stuck in my head. Clint asked for it at the party last night.**  
**Ahaha. Yes. The party.**  
**Well, me, my housemates walk into the Tower. Tony is already a little drunk. Steve has a beer and gives me a Harvey Wallbanger. I'm surprised he remembered that it was my favourite!**  
**The Macarena comes on and I have to teach Steve how to dance it. He's so damned adorable! Then we dance to some song I've forgotten the name of but it's good anyways. He looked really nervous, but he's actually pretty good! (I think one of the Avengers taught him how. My money is on Natasha!)**  
**We dance for a while and then I'm pulled off by Sherly. I dance with pretty much everyone there and then I look over to the table with the punch bowl on it and TONY is kissing CLINT.**

**CLINT.**

**My first thought is literally, 'Oh. They're kissing'. Then immediately after, 'What the hell! THEY'RE KISSING!' Clint looks like he's kissing someone with bubonic plague, honestly. Tony is just drunk. Tony then breaks off and then tells Clint, "You're no' Pepper!" and Pepper is just standing there laughing her head off.**  
**Me and Steve dance for a little longer and then the party starts to wind down. At some point Thor arrives with his girlfriend, Jane and her friend Darcy who is actually pretty awesome (who by the way I think Sherly has an almighty crush on!)! It's weird to think of Thor having a girlfriend, he's so tough. But it's pretty much the same for all the Avengers, so it's cool.**  
**Eventually me and Steve sit down on one of the couches and next thing I know, it's the morning.**  
**I'm lying on Steve.**  
**I don't even know how I did it, but I did. Steve's laughing and I'm still too drunk/hungover/waking up to realise that I'm lying on him.**  
**Eventually I realised (after trying to put my hand in his pocket while searching for my phone.) we go make breakfast (a S'more/Omelette!). Steve says that he managed to blow up a load of Tony's stuff and Bruce walks in saying that he 'screamed like a girl'. Is that not the funniest thing ever? But Steve insists it was a 'manly scream.'**  
**We all know he's lying.**  
**Eventually Tony walks down last out of everyone, and he looks like he has a hell of a hangover. We all sit down but we're all trying not to laugh cause he doesn't remember that he kissed Clint. Eventually he does and just yelps "Shit! I kissed you, didn't I?" and Clint looks so... offended.**  
**Apparently it's normally Bruce Tony kisses. I'm sure there's something going on with them, honestly.**  
**Then this man walks in who I've never seen before and he says he's Nick and he's the guy who made the Avengers. (I've been told I can't say his full name and the company he works for). He makes me and my flatmates sign a massive thing saying that we won't tell everyone what the Avengers have been up to. But I'm allowed to say what happens domestically, thankfully.**  
**He stalks out and everyone else does too, leaving just me and Bruce.**  
**I feel really bad about this now, but I was honestly scared of him. I know it's stupid and I know that he has amazing control of the Hulk but it's so strange, thinking that one time he might just go all green and huge and kill us all. But I guess that's the same for the other Avengers, too, except they don't go green and huge.**  
**Steve uses JARVIS to summon me to his quarters and I manage to go to the wrong floor. Instead... I go to Tony's.**  
**And he's there, in his pants.**  
**(Whhhhhhhhhyyyyyy)**  
**I blurt out 'that looks really bulky' and after about three seconds of saying it I realise how suggestive that sounds. He's all confused then I realise that he knows EXACTLY what I could've been implying.**  
**I tell him that I mean the Arc reactor, then he's like, 'OH. You meant the arc reactor." and winks.**  
**But damn. He did look good.**  
**(If you reading this Tony, Steve looks better!)**  
**Anyway I manage to get up to Steve's floor without meeting any more semi-naked people. Steve suggests we go sight seeing and we do.**  
**We go up to the Empire State building and look at the whole of NY. It looks amazing. And...**  
**STEVE'S DAD HELPED BUILD IT!**  
**Yeah! Would you believe it!? It helped fund their family.**  
**So, yeah. I'm gonna wrap this up now cause I need to call Aunt Maggie. See ya later!**

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
Evie! Steve can't use Tumblr! You don't need to pretend, you want me!  
_Sure Tony. Believe whatever you want.  
_204 Notes. [Oct 26, 2012]

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
Evie, stop lying to me and yourself!  
_Tony, I think it's you that needs to stop lying to yourself and Bruce!  
_363 Notes. [Oct 26, 2012]

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie

_Exactly.  
_52 Notes. [Oct 26, 2012]

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

That night Evie made one of the biggest discoveries she would ever make, along with a fantastic plan while talking to her aunt Maggie over the phone. It was another 2 days in which Evie began to plan, she talked to Steve a little during those days but finally it was 7 in evening on Saturday night when she stopped by Stark tower, she was hesitant but let herself in as Tony had told her she can whenever she wants, he had made sure that she was authorised.

She walked into the common room where Steve, Clint, Natasha and Bruce were playing Mario Karts. Pepper, Tony and Thor were watching, "Oi! Bruce that's cheating!" Clint yelled.

"_How's_ that cheating? Is it even possible to cheat on this game?"

"Course it's possible. _Tasha_!"

Natasha shrugged, "You're too busy arguing, not my fault."

"Sneaky."

"Definition of a Spy." Evie pointed up. Everyone except the two assassins jumped at Evies voice and they paused the game. Steve turned around and smiled surprised at her. "Hey Evelyn, are you ok?"

"Yeah, I rung by there was no answer."

"Ah...uh..." Steve looked around. "My phone is somewhere around here...uh actually I haven't seen it in a few days..." Bruce sighed as Steve said that and handed Clint a 5 dollar note making Steve frown at him, "You bet I'd lose my phone?"

"Yep."

"I thought you wouldn't."

"But you did so he owed me 5 pounds."

"It's not _lost_." Steve protested.

Evie chuckled at their antics, "There's somewhere we need to go." Evie added talking to Steve.

"Oh?"

"Yeah." Evie grinned widely, nervously, "Come on."

Steve looked at the others who all shrugged (Tony looked suggestively between the two) before Steve handed Tony his wii controller and followed her into the elevator murmuring a 'see you later' to the others.


	6. Peggy

"Where are we going?" Steve asked as they drove through New York until finally Evie stopped the car and Steve looked around frowning, he vaguely recognised it but it couldn't be true, could it? "Where are we?"

Evie didn't answer for a few minutes, just parked the car and turned the engine off. "Stork Club." Evie answered.

"What?"

"Well...It was demolished in 1966 and it's now Paley Park, but this is in the same place."

"Evelyn?"

"Go right and just keep walking and you'll be there."

"Where are you going?"

"I'll be here, in the car."

"What?"

"Just go Steve." Evie grinned at him reaching over to open his side of the car door nudging him out. Steve frowned at her but climbed out and before he could say anything else Evie drove off. Sighing in confusion Steve followed her directions.

He stopped so abruptly as if he had hit an invisible wall the moment he saw what was 'The Stork Club'. Now in its place a large expanse of space filled with chairs and tables.

But he could still see it, the dark club filled with people dancing and having fun, he could hear he and his friends drinking and laughing the music playing around them, he could taste the beer he'd drink, feel the atmosphere of just...fun, relaxing time.

He was only there a few months ago but it had been a _lifetime_.

He found himself closing his eyes and just walking forward into the middle of the space, the middle of the dance floor.

Until he was stopped by a voice, it was soft, a gentle whisper but it made his heart stop.

"You're late."

He couldn't believe it; he didn't dare turn around or open his eyes as he heard the soft footsteps walking closer until a frail hand gripped his shoulder.

Slowly he turned to face her opening his eyes as he did this, she was older, he hair was greyer but her _eyes_...it was _her_. "Time flies." He murmured slowly lifting a hand to brush against her cheek. "You look amazing."

"I could say the same Captain." Peggy smiled so softly, just staring into his eyes and he started back. "I came here. Every Saturday at 8pm. I knew it was foolish but I couldn't help it," She tried to blink away her tears but it didn't work, Steve wiped them away with his thumb. "They demolished it, but not without a fight."

"I would expect no less." Steve smiled back at her not bothering to stop the single tear that flowed down his cheek. "I'm sorry."

"You saved New York. Don't be sorry. But you still owe me a dance."

Steve chuckled but he was smiling as his hand slipped down to her waist and met with his other. Her frail hands both clasped together at Steve's neck. First moving one foot, then the other and soon they were dancing, no music was playing but they stared into each other's eyes and suddenly they were back.

It was 70 years prior, Peggy was young and they were back at the Stork Club, the band was playing slow music, their friends were dancing with their girls but nothing mattered to them as they danced and stared into each other's eyes.

They drifted and twirled around the floor with so much _feeling_, the moment was perfect and beautiful. They didn't want it to end.

But it had to.

They danced for half an hour until Peggy sadly pulled away needing to sit down. Steve sat down beside her, "I take it you're great aunt Maggie then?"

Peggy laughed and nodded, "When Evelyn rung me a few days ago and told me she was in a relationship with you...I couldn't believe it."

"I thought you were..."

"I know." Peggy nodded, "I've been waiting. 70 years for this dance. I missed you."

"I missed you too."

Peggy sat up and looked at Steve, a stern look on her face making his eyes widen, "But I have to tell you, if you hurt Evelyn, I don't care who you are or about any history between us, I will hunt you down Steve Rogers."

"I don't plan on hurting her Peggy."

"Good, promise you'll look after her?"

"I promise."

They talked for another 10 minutes until Evie wandered around the corner grinning when she saw them sat together, "Good time?"

"Incredible." Steve answered standing up to greet her, "Thank you for this."

Evie shrugged, "Bit of a shock. But come on, we can't be late."

"For?"

"A dinner reservation, figured you two have a lot to catch up on, I'll drop you off and them I'm gonna finish your game of Mario Karts."

"Don't be silly Evelyn," Peggy spoke up, "Join us."

Evie glanced between them, "You sure? I mean I just thought-"

But Steve and Peggy shook their heads, "Join us." Peggy repeated.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The next morning after they dropped Peggy off at the airport evening, Steve sat down beside Evie who curled into his side as they were about to watch a movie on the new TV Steve had bought them, Mycroft went to make drinks, Sherlock was making Popcorn and Irene was choosing a film, "Thank you." Steve murmured into her hair, Evie just smiled, "She made me promise to look after you."

Evie laughed, "She did the same with me." Steve laughed, trust Peggy.

He couldn't believe it. This was the absolute _last_ thing he had expected this morning, for his girlfriend's great aunt to be his first love. He got his dance, 70 years late, but he got the dance he had waited for and Peggy had given her blessing for him to fall in love with another.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The next day back at the tower Steve frowned. He could have sworn he had just made a sandwich and put it on the plate. He had just looked away for 10 seconds to get the mayo and when he turned back it was gone.

He glanced up to see the air duct was closed, so Clint couldn't have taken it unless he was _that_ quick...He shook his head and put it down to Tony's strange experiments.

Steve sighed and started to make himself another sandwich, this time making sure to keep his eye on it at all times.

He took a bite as he walked to the sofa and got comfortable when the elevator opened and Evie walked it. "Evelyn," he greeted surprised. "I was going to come see you after lunch." She didn't say anything, instead she just walked over to him sitting down beside him crying, Steve put his arm around her shoulders, "Evelyn? Are you ok?"

She shook her head and Steve pulled her into a hug putting his hand onto the back of her head as she leant into her chest, her arms wrapped around his waist and huge sobs wracked through her body. Steve hugged her tightly, stroking her hair and rubbing her back muttered soothing noises in her ear.

After a few minutes Evie pulled back but kept her hands around his waist, Steve moved his hands to her shoulders, "Maggie...after she got home," Evie swallowed, "She went to bed and...she didn't wake up."

Steve's eyes widened and he pulled Evie back towards his chest burying his face into her hair. They sat there for a while, Evie sobbing and Steve was in shock. He didn't take his eyes off the wall, until the elevator door opened and Tony walked in.

The two pulled apart and Evie wiped at her eyes, Tony had an embarrassing comment ready until he realised Evie had been crying his eye's widened, "Sorry." Tony glanced around as if looking for an escape. He never knew what to do in an emotional situation.

Evie shook her head, "It's ok uh..." She glanced at Steve, "I should go tell the others and uh..."

"Do you want me to come with you?" Steve offered.

Evie shook her head, "No, it's fine they won't want anyone around. Are you...?"

"I'm fine." Steve nodded confidently but Evie could see his hand was shaking, "I think I just need..."

"Time alone, I get it." Evie smiled at him before stepping past Tony into the elevator, Tony murmured a confused goodbye.

Once the doors closed Tony turned to Steve, "What happened?" Steve had never heard Tony sound as concerned as he did at that moment.

Steve swallowed, "Uh...Peggy, she died last night." With that he stalked out of the room and made his way into the gym.

It wasn't until dinner that night and a lot of broken punching bags later when the elevator door opened and Tony walked in. Steve glanced at him but didn't speak as Tony walked into the boxing ring.

"Come on Capsicle. Let's go a few rounds."

Steve glanced at him again, "I'm not gonna fight you Tony."

"_Spar_." Tony corrected, "Come on."

Tony stood in the middle of the boxing ring for a few minutes until Steve sighed and stepped in with him putting on a mouth guard and boxing gloves. Tony grinned and put his own mouth guard in. They fought for a while, neither man holding back and when they finally both stepped away both men were bloody and tired and lent back against the ropes around the boxing ring beside each other.

"I knew Peggy," Tony spoke up a few minutes later, "I haven't seen her since I was a kid though. My dad and her had a huge argument and that was the last time I saw her."

"I'd already come to terms with her being...gone with everyone else but when I found out she was alive I couldn't believe it. We finally got our dance and now...she's gone again."

Tony nodded and put his hand onto Steve's shoulder. They sat like that for 20 minutes in complete silence until Tony patted Steve shoulder and stood up, "I'm gonna go take a shower and do some science."

"Yeah." Steve nodded as Tony walked towards the elevator, "And Tony?" Tony spun around to look at Steve again, "Thanks."

Tony shrugged, "Don't mention it. Really. Don't." with that he left the room grinning, it was a moment until Steve stood back up and made his way back to his room.

It was the next day when Steve went straight over to Evie's, he knocked on the door and a few moments later it was opened and Mycroft stood on the other side, his usual perfect hair was ruffled, his eyes were red raw from crying, and it was obvious he hadn't changed out of yesterday's suit. But he managed to smile when he recognised Steve. "Hey Cap."

"Hey, how are you all doing?"

Mycroft shrugged as he stepped back to allow Steve inside, "She was like the strict but perfect grandma to all of us."

Steve nodded, "That sounds like her. What about Evie? How's..."

"She hasn't left her room. Go on through,"

Steve nodded unsurprised, "Thanks." He nodded at Sherlock who was sat in the kitchen pour a glass of water eyes unseeing as the water spilled over his hands into the sink.

Steve lightly knocked on the door and after a moment he heard a sniffed 'Come in', he pushed the door open to find Evie sat on her large bed and Irene curled up next to her, they both had obviously been crying and were hugging a large blanket. Steve knew that Aunt Maggie/Peggy had sewn it for them both when they were very young. They both attempted to smile but it came out more of a grimace.

"Join us?" Evie asked and Steve closed the door moving to sit beside Evie and she lent into his side.

Irene stood up, "I'll leave you two alone for a while."

Evie nodded gratefully watching Irene close the door. "You know," Evie spoke up conversationally a few minutes later, "After Jake died I thought nothing could hurt like this again." She chuckled humourlessly, "I guess I was wrong."

"What was he like? Jacob I mean?"

"He was an arrogant son of a bitch." Evie laughed and Steve rose an eyebrow, "But then he'd laugh or give me this _look_ and I'd agree to anything. When he proposed he threw the ring into a pool and said 'if you wanna marry me jump in and get it' and proceeded to push me in." Steve snorted and Evie started giggling, "When Maggie found out she whacked me for not jumping in before he got the chance to push me!"

Steve laughed again, "I couldn't get close to anybody for a long time, you've helped me more than I helped myself in two years. I just thank God I've got you this time around."

"Well I'm not leaving." Steve promised.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Hello everyone, just a short post today to let you all know I probably won't be posting for a while. Family stuff and all that. Sorry, please be patient and I'll answer any questions when I can. Thanks guys.**

Steve, Irene, Mycroft, Sherlock and all of the Avengers helped her plan for the funeral. Thor came back for a few days, to pay his respects. Though he never met Peggy he wanted to be there for Steve.

When Tony offered to pay for the funeral Evie stared at him curiously, "Why?"

Tony shrugged, "You're a friend. Steve's a friend. My father knew her."

"Thank you Tony."

The funeral went down well without anything to dramatic happening other than Evie crying and Steve comforting her.

They had the wake at Stark towers but it didn't last long.

Once everyone else left Sherlock, Mycroft and Irene went to the spare rooms that had been dedicated to them and Steve carried Evie up to his bedroom, laying her down on his bed to sleep. He started towards the door intending to sleep on the sofa in his barely used living room when Evie grabbed his arm. He turned around too look at her curiously, she was cocooned in his blankets with just her head poking out.

"Stay...please."

Steve hesitated for a moment before nodding, taking his jacket off and climbing into the bed beside her, she moved the blanket and curled into his side and soon fell asleep, it wasn't long until he followed into land of the slumber.

The next day was better but it was a week until Evie laughed and even then it was only Steve that could make her smile for a while.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Evie let herself into the Stark tower; it was mid-November a few weeks since Aunt Maggie had died. She spent more time at the tower than she did at her own apartment. So much time even, that one day when she came back to the tower after work she found boxes of most of her own belonging on Steve's floor, when she asked about it Steve didn't know. Tony however, said that she's been an uninvited guest long enough she might as well move in.

He just forgot to tell her room-mates so they of course panicked when they got home.

Although despite that Evie found herself un-packing with Steve as he made room for her in his bedroom, which wasn't hard considering that he had an _entire floor_ which he barely used.

Today she walked in, greeting JARVIS as she walked inside. "Miss Rae, they are in the laboratory." JARVIS told her and Evie paused, that was new.

"Who?"

"Miss Potts, Mr Odinson, Agents Barton and Romanov."

"Right. Why are you telling me this?"

"They wish for you to join them."

"Ah. Sense, context if helpful JARVIS. I can hear the Tony coming out from you." Evie paused again, since when had she been so casual with an A.I? Shrugging it off she stepped into the elevator, "Can you take me to the right floor please JARVIS? Duno what level it's on."

"Of course Mrs Rae."

"How many times to I have to tell you to call me Evie?" Evie asked as the elevator started moving.

"You have currently told me 43 times."

"Shouldn't you start doing that then? Please?"

"I have been programmed to be polite." JARVIS told her for what felt like the hundredth time and Evie sighed. She had this argument almost every day with JARVIS; she really needed to had a chat with Tony about it.

She made it to the lab floor and had to knock on the door outside the elevator, a moment later the door opened with Pepper looking grim. "What's happened?" Evie asked looking around at the lab, she had only been here once before and it was messy, but right now it looked like a struggle had gone on. Clint and Thor seemed to be looking around for clues, Natasha stood in the corner talking quickly and quietly on the phone.

"Tony, Bruce and Steve were kidnapped." Pepper answered, "JARVIS show her the tape."

"Of course," the TV across the room switched on and Evie turned to watch it. It showed the lab where Tony and Bruce seemed to be working quite happily, the Black Sabbath music was playing loudly through the TV.

**There was loud music for a few seconds as Tony and Bruce worked across the desk from each other, Tony occasionally singing to the music, until Tony's mouth moved and the music turned down making Bruce look up curiously. "I think I've got it."**

**"Oh?"**

**"Yeah, not that hard. Simple bit of programming."**

**"Tested?"**

**"JARVIS. Call Steve tell him to come down?"**

**"At once Sir."**

**Bruce sent Tony an exasperated look and a roll of his eyes as Tony just chuckled, a moment later Steve walked into the lab looking around warily. "What's up?"**

**"Could you test this?" Tony handed Steve a square device. Steve took it cautiously as if afraid it was going to blow up. Knowing his luck it probably would.**

**"What is it?"**

**"We've called it the Stark Banner." Bruce answered. "It's a tablet for school kids; it's got different features to usual iPad and Windows tablets."**

**"We've programmed it to work with the school's curriculum and using mobile networks to make it work except that it's mostly free to use."**

**"Mostly?"**

**"10 dollars a month for the school, plus the actual expense of buying the hardware but we've made it quite cheap."**

**"Starting off in primary schools but might expand to secondary schools and colleges and universities if it's a hit."**

**"Once we get onto Universities I was going to make an extra private server, I've started to make a new frequency for it."**

"Is that even possible?" Evie asked out loud, Pepper just shrugged.

**"With a satellite type thing on the roof of this tower so students can use it anywhere in New York where they're near they're university or not."**

**"From making weapons to school devices Tony?" Steve asked with a grind and Tony rolled his eyes with a shrug.**

**"Bruce's idea."**

**Steve chuckled and switched it on and started going through the Stark-Banner but before he could give any comments JARVIS spoke up, "Sir, my protocols are being overwritten."**

**"Shit, who by?"**

**"A group of men breaking in." JARVIS replied in an almost deadpan voice. Tony grabbed a box and then the Camera went off.**

JARVIS switched the camera to the lobby where there was a group of 8 men; two of them were carrying an unconscious Bruce, three were dragging a struggling Steve and two were dragging Tony while the last held a gun and was looking around.

**Steve looked up right into the camera, "I feel like serious half-giant being taken away." Steve stated quite calmly for someone being dragged away. The guards and Tony all looked confused and one of the hit Steve across the head yelling shut up before dragging them outside into a van and the screen switched off.**

"Serious half-giant?" Evie commented confused, she looked at the others hoping for an answer but they all just shook their heads.

"I have no idea."

"What are you looking for?" Evie asked the others.

"Tranquilliser-dart. Bruce was unconscious; you need a _special_ kind of dart to take him out." Clint answered distractedly.

Evie nodded and joined in looking.

"Is this the device used to take down the mighty Hulk?" Thor asked reaching down to pick up the tiny dart.

"Don't touch it!" Clint warned joining him to pick it up with a plastic glove and place it in a plastic bag for evidence. "We need to get to S.H.I.E.L.D, Tasha?"

"Yep. Sir, we're on our way now." She added into the phone before cutting it off and joining them.

"We're coming right?" Evie asked gesturing between herself and Pepper.

"Fury says no, but screw him. You two know Stark and Cap better than us."

"How are we getting there?" Evie asked.  
"The balcony on Tony's level, we have a jet to take us to S.H.I.E.L.D."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Steve woke up first and looked around the dark room, only lit up by a soft blue light. He was tied to a chair, he could see Tony beside him unconscious and Bruce was beside Tony. The light was coming from the arc reactor. The rest of the room was empty.

"Tony, wake up." He called across to his friend.

"Dn't wanna." Tony slurred shaking his head, he seemed to try and turn to his side before realising he was bound and tensed and slowly his eyes opened. "_SHIT!"_

Steve resisted a comment about Tony's language, "See if you can wake Bruce. Carefully, we don't need him hulking out just yet. At least not while trapped in a small room with him."

"Hulk won't hurt us."

"When he's trapped? He might."

Tony sighed not agreeing but he couldn't fight Steve's logic and looked towards Bruce, "Bruce-y? Now would be a great time to wake up without Hulking please?" Bruce grunted. It didn't sound like a particularly human-like grunt, "Bruce, its Tony and Steve." Bruce's eyes opened slowly and he looked around.

"I can't feel him."

"What?" Tony didn't understand.

"The Hulk. He's...I don't know!" Bruce was panicking, he looked terrified.

"Bruce! Calm down!" Tony yelled at him, "That's a good thing isn't it?"

"I...I don't know. But..." Bruce cut himself off and took a deep breath. "We were looking at the Stark-Banner right?"

"Yeah, then some guys broke in, tranquilised you and dragged us out." Steve stated.

"What did you mean when you said something about a serious half-giant?" Tony asked looking lightly worried for Steve's sanity.

Steve grinned, "Evelyn will work it out."

"Don't we have some protocols for something like this?" Bruce asked taking a deep breath as he looked around.

Tony shrugged, "JARVIS'll have told the others they'll be working on it. So what does it feel like Bruce?"

"I can't access him. He's usually there usually growling at me and fighting against me, it's quite a usual thing to stop him but he's not there. It's like...he's unconscious."

"You were tranquillized."

"That doesn't usually work; it usually makes me Hulk out."

"So a specially decided one?" Steve suggested.

"Only S.H.I.E.L.D can do that, and even then it only knocks me out when I wake up I can Hulk."

Before they could say anything else the doors slammed open and a group of 5 men walked into the room, they all looked rough with dark hair, scars and cuts across their faces and large hands, each one was holding a gun pointed at them.

"That's quite unnecessary." Tony commented too calmly for this situation. "The gun, I mean we can't exactly move."

"We don't know exactly what you can do." One of them stated.

"Shut it." Another yelled angrily.

"Helpful to know." Tony muttered.

"What do you want?" Steve demanded.

"Something built." The second man answered.

"Again?" Tony sighed.

"What?" the men sounded vaguely confused at Tony's exclamation.

Tony just shook his head, "The troubles with being a fantastic engineer. Why are these two here then?"

"Banner often helps you does he not? We've been watching you for a while."

"And me?" Steve asked.

"You were in the way. Will you or not?" he directed the question at Tony but his voice told Tony there was only one answer.

Instead Tony smirked. "Depends, what do you want built?"

"Arc Reactor."

"Then not."

Three of them men stepped forward and the Avengers tensed, they grabbed Steve's chair dragging him around so that he was facing the other two, he struggled against the binds but stopped when a knife was pressed against his throat, both Tony and Bruce growled as another man stepped forward and pressed his hand on Steve's bare arm, nothing happened for a moment and then Steve screamed in fear and confusion and absolute agony. Each and every one of his nerves was on fire. He was thrashing in his seat and seemed to want to cut his own arm off just to get away from the pain. With no idea what was happening Tony and Bruce struggled wanting more than ever to help their friend.

And suddenly Bruce could feel the Hulk raging up inside him and he couldn't hold him back. He felt his muscles begin to expand before a dart pressed itself into his chest and he immediately flopped, unconscious.

Pulling the hand away from Steve he looked at the two geniuses', Bruce was unconscious and his skin slowly fading from green to his normal pale complexion, Tony was glaring at them with the darkest heaviest glare he had ever given, he mentally vowed the moment he could he would kill these men.

"So, yes or no?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The remaining Avengers and the girlfriends walked into the bridge to find Fury already stood beside the large bird shaped table glaring at Evie and Pepper.

"Will someone tell me what's going on?" Fury asked once everyone sat down and Natasha explained it all to him in more detail before showing him to video feed.

"What the hell?" he asked once it finished, "Is Rogers on drugs?"

"Serious Half Giant..." Clint repeated the words, "I would say Thor but he's not too serious and that wouldn't make sense, unless you know something Thor?"

Thor's eyebrow rose at that, "I'm a half giant?"

"Well you are huge mate."

Thor looked down at himself and back at Clint smirking, "Says the tiny man."

"Oi! I take offence."

"No..." Evie murmured and the two men stopped bickering to look at her curiously, "Maybe he's not saying _serious_ but _Sirius_."

"What?" Fury frowned at her along with the others.

"That's the same thing," Natasha asked enquiringly.

"As in Sirius Black." Evie looked around at them, "_Sirius Black_!" she yelled at them looking around waiting for them to understand.

"The uh...man from the Harry Potter series?" Fury asked her and Evie nodded.

"Yeah!"

"Half giant?"

"Hagrid!"

"They're in Azkaban!"

"That's a fictional place." Fury spoke to Evie as if she was a stupid child and Evie rolled her eyes.

"The first time Steve read Harry Potter, he got confused between Azkaban and Alcatraz. We joked about it for a while - so when he says he feels like he's a Sirius half-giant it because Sirius and Hagrid have both been in Azkaban."

"How did he know you'd be listening?" Clint asked.

"I now live with you; don't you remember Tony deciding this?"

"And he knew you'd get it?"

"We met in a library. Harry Potter was a book before it was a film. Course I'd work it out."

"Alright, so Alcatraz. What are we waiting for?" Pepper asked standing up.

"Conformation." Fury replied looking at the two women with a calculating eye.

"What?" Evie asked with a frown, "They're in Alcatraz."

"How did Captain Rogers know that? You expect they just _told_ him? It could be a trap."

"It's the only thing we have though."

"No it's not."

"What else do we have?"

"The tranquillising dart and the van." Natasha answered.

"You have the dart?" Fury asked and Pepper handed it to him. "Barton."

Clint reached behind himself pulling and arrow from a small compartment in his quiver and handed it to Fury.

"What's that?" Evie asked.

"An arrow, containing the only known substance that can take down the Hulk on the off chance he gets out of control."

"Does Bruce know you have that?" Thor asked looking concerned for his green friend but Clint nodded.

"He gave it to me."

Another agent came over to Fury and took the dart and arrow from him and Fury muttered something to him before the agent jogged off.

"What do we do now?"

"Wait for information about the dart and the van which is being traced as we speak."

Evie sighed and nodded glancing at the other three Avengers who seemed to have expected that, "I'll make us some coffee?" Pepper offered.

"Please." Evie nodded, Natasha, Clint and Thor also agreed.


	7. Arc Reactor

Bruce slowly opened his eyes and looked around, sighing to himself when he realised he was still tied up. The room was still lit up by the arc reactor; Tony was tied up in the chair beside him. Steve had been moved from the chair, his arms were chained above him to the wall his chin resting on his chest. The chest that didn't seem to be moving.

"Steve?" Bruce spoke hesitantly, terrified that Steve wouldn't answer. Steve's head slowly lifted as if it was too heavy for his neck and looked at Bruce, Steve grinned at him not seeming to notice or care about being chained to a wall.

"Doctor Banner, glad to see you back in the land of the living."

"What the hell happened?" Bruce demanded his blood pressure rising, "Why are you chained up?!" He automatically started to hold back the Hulk feeling the anger rising from him before realising that he couldn't actually _access _the Hulk.

Steve shrugged as much as he could with his arms above him. "All I can say is that it hurt. It was like each and every one of my nerves were on fire. After you were tranquilized bit more pain, chained me up. More pain and-"

"I said yes." Tony whispered.

"What?!" Bruce exclaimed.

"I told them we'll build it."

"You shouldn't have." Steve interjected.

"What and watch them _torture_ you, Steve?" Tony paused and Steve stopped his own comeback, Tony _never_ called him Steve, at least not directly to him, it was always Cap, Capsicle or Gramps. Whenever his name _was_ used it was always to gain his attention because Tony was absolutely _serious_. Tony realising that using his name got through to him, he continued, "I know we don't always get along but I _couldn't_ watch _that_."

"He's right; if I was awake I would have done the same." Bruce admitted struggling to keep his voice calm; he still couldn't feel the Hulk inside him and that un-nerved him.

"Do you have any idea how he did that?" Steve asked Bruce, partly to change to subject and partly out of curiosity, "Tony didn't know."

"I think he's a mutant." Bruce answered.

"Of course, that would make sense." Tony murmured.

"A mutant?"

"Yeah, it's like a mutation of the genes and they end up having some form of power. I studied some when I was studying you, it's amazing."

"Oh, like the X-men?"

"Yeah, they're mutants."

"And you think he's one?"

"Causing pain with a touch. Definitely." Steve nodded in an understanding motion. "So, what's the plan then? Another Iron Man suit?" Bruce asked looking at Tony.

"Nope, we're gonna build them an arc reactor."

"What? Why?"

"Because they want us to. They might _need_ one; someone might have the same injury as me." Tony sounded sure of it and Bruce frowned.

"We can't just give in Tony."

"I just did."

Steve and Bruce shared a look neither man knowing what to say to knock some sense into Tony, he looked cold, calculating and...terrified. That scared Steve more than even the thought of unbearable pain.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Evie was worried, it had been two days and nothing had been done. She told her roommates the basics of what had happened but she was staying on the helicarrier with the rest of the Avengers and Pepper.

She was absolutely _sure_ it was Alcatraz, although, yes it could be a trap but it was the only lead they hadn't tried yet and the others had gotten them nowhere.  
Pepper was drinking her 5th cup of coffee for the morning, a nervous habit. Natasha and Clint were nowhere to be seen and Thor was polishing the Mjölnir looking thunderous and worried. Evie was pretty sure New York had been in a two day thunderstorm.

Jane was sat beside him talking quietly, she had become and agent for S.H.I.E.L.D after New Mexico. Once Jane left Evie moved to sit beside him, "Evie, how are you doing?" Thor asked sounding concerned.

"Worried."

"You seem to be holding up better than most would."

Evie shrugged, "Pepper said to me there's no help in panicking and she's right."

"Of course."

"But I am worried."

"Do not. We will find them, safe and alive."

"You can't know that."

Thor shook his head, "I will do _everything_ in my power to bring Steve back you."

Evie smiled, "Thank you Thor." she glanced up as Fury stalked in followed by Clint and Natasha. They say down beside Evie and Pepper came to join them. "Anything interesting?" Evie asked.

Clint and Natasha shook their heads, "We were going through some old files to see if any of their enemies matched up." Clint explained.

"I was thinking, since you couldn't find any hint of Tony's arc reactor, have you tried searching for Gamma radiation?" Evie suggested but Natasha shook her head.

"Tried that, but we're unable to locatable Bruce either."

Evie sighed, "I'm going to Alcatraz then. It's the only lead we haven't tried. I don't care if nobody comes with me."

Pepper stood up as well nodding, "I'll come with you."

"No. This is for Agents _only_, you're lucky I let you on my boat." Fury boomed.

"Sorry sir, but I have to agree with them. We haven't tried it."

"Barton, haven't you heard the word _trap_ before?"

"It might not be." Clint argued, "We don't know until we've tried."

"When have you ever _not_ sent us into almost certain traps?" Natasha spoke up angrily. Fury just stared at the two agents for a minute until Clint turned to the others.

"Evie, Pepper. It could be dangerous, you're not trained for this, and your technically civilians."

"Don't care." they both spoke simultaneously.

"I know how to use a gun, and a sword." Evie stated. "I can handle myself."

"Alright then. Pepper?"

"Gimmie a gun and we're on it."

Clint nodded, "Come on then." he started walking to the main entrance followed by Natasha, Evie, Pepper and Thor.

Fury watched them go with anger in his eye before sighing and turning to another agent, "Get a few jets to follow. _Silently_."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Avengers, Evie and Pepper all ran through the snow that had started gushing down around them and climbed into their jet with a large 'A' written on the side, Clint and Natasha got into the pilot seat as the other three climbed into the back, Thor made sure they were both secured in before the Jet took off.

"So what's the plan?" Evie asked.

"Go to the tower, plan and then either walk straight into a trap or recuse our friends." Clint answered too cheerfully for the context of his words.

"Why didn't we just plan at the base?"

"Fury was pissing me off. JARVIS, get all floor plans of all buildings on Alcatraz Island, underground included. Highlight all possible places for them to be hidden."

"Downloading now." JARVIS voice answered immediately.

They went down to one of the lower floors to a conference room where the table was set out for images and projections. They sat around the table as the image of Alcatraz Island came onto the screen.

"Right, there's the wardens house and officers club which both are so run down but accessible. Parade grounds and recreational yard but they're both flat ground. The Federal Penitentiary, library, large dining hall, Military chapel, building 64, new industries building, model industries building, all included with the tour and act as a museum. Lastly the lighthouse and water tower." Clint read from the list JARVIS had given them. "Oh and don't forget underground, probably tunnels running everywhere."

"The federal penitentiary? The old prison right?" Evie asked and Clint nodded.

"Good place to start it just feels...obvious." Natasha stated.

"JARVIS, get the floor plans of the prison please." Clint asked and it immediately came onto the flat screen on the table, Pepper reached forward placing her hand above the image lifting it slowly so that the image become 3D hologram.

"Does this include underground?" Natasha asked.

"Yes Agent Romanov." JARVIS answered.

"Ok, Thor, Clint, make a plan on what we're gonna do." Natasha ordered, "Evie, Pepper with me."

"What are we doing?" Evie asked.

"I need to see your skills with a gun."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Steve opened his eyes and groaned, there was a face in front of his...there was a giant apple?

The apple started laughing and Steve frowned. Was it possible for apples to laugh?

"No Steve. I'm not an apple." the apple told him and Steve frowned deeper.

Not _only_ can the apple _laugh_ but it can _talk_. Steve blinked a few times and the apple begun to fade...no, the ripe was fading...less green, or maybe...no, it wasn't an apple.

"Bruce?" Steve croaked.

"Glad your back with us." Bruce grinned at him patting the side of his head, "I look like an apple?"

"Uh..." Steve attempting to move into a more comfortable position before realising his arms were still chained up above him and he was pulled into a half sitting position. He was certain once he got out of this his arms would ache and he'd barely be able to move them for at _least_ a week.

"Here," a voice behind him made him jump and Steve turned his head to see Tony sat on his other side, Tony reached behind Steve and pulled him backwards so that he was leaning back against the wall.

"Thanks," Steve tried to clear his throat but it was too dry. A glass was pressed into his lips and he felt water against his lips, opening his mouth he gratefully drunk down the warm water. "Thanks." He repeated.

"So..._apple_?" Bruce repeated.

Steve chuckled softly, "You were round and..._green_. Did you Hulk?"

"No, still can't access him."

"Right, I remember." Steve nodded groaning as his body protested with every moment; every nerve was pounding, "How long was I out this time?"

"About 7 hours. How are you holding up?"

Steve just glared at Tony's question, "How are you doing with the reactor?"

Tony and Bruce shared a glance, "Few more days."

"How long does it take to make an arc reactor? It's been 2 days."

"I'd say it should take about 3 days at _least_ in my lab with the right equipment, here at least a week. It's quite hard to concentrate when you're being tortured to make use work faster Steve."

"Yeah, right, _sorry_. A bit stressed."

"No surprise there." Tony muttered as he stood up from beside Steve and walked to the other side of the room. Steve glanced over Bruce's shoulder to see a table of various pieces of equipment strode around that he couldn't hope to know what any of it is, although more of it seemed to be in some form of shape than it was a few hours ago.

Bruce glanced at Steve for a minute before joining Tony's side.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"So you know the plan?" Natasha asked as they sat in the jet almost to the island, they decided to go under the cover of night. The snow was also helping cloak them.

"Underground, search. Split up Tasha and Clint together, Thor, Pepper and I together."

"Good, be careful. Don't be afraid to shoot anyone." Clint grinned back at them.

"If you don't want to kill, kneecaps." Natasha added with a smirk. "Ready?"

"Nope." Both Pepper and Evie said simultaneously.

"Great, let's go."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"How much longer is this going to take?!" the man they know knew as Bale yelled at them.

"I told you, a few more days at least!" Tony growled back at him, "I got a few _months_ last time I was kidnapped to build something."

"And as I recall you made your now famous Iron Man suit."

"Well yeah, I wanted to escape." Tony rolled his eyes. "We have nice food, water why would I want to escape this time?"

"Get it done." He glanced at Steve who closed his eyes waiting for the pain, Bale stepped towards him.

"_Stop_! You keep torturing him it's gonna take us longer!" Tony protested but of course Bale ignored him and lightly ran his fingers across Steve's face, Steve clenched his jaw barely holding back a scream as it felt like his face was on fire.

Not learning from last time Tony stepped towards Bale pulling him away and punching the man across the face. Bale growled and grabbed Tony's arm, Tony yelped in agony.

Bruce stepped forward but Bale let go of Tony putting a hand to his ear before running out of the room closing and locking the door behind him.

"What the heck?" Steve asked his voice rough from the pain.

Tony shrugged then winced, "Don't complain."

"Not complaining, just...strange, he usually spends longer torturing us."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Well, we can safety say they're underground." Evie quirked as Thor as he swung the hammer forwards hitting four guards across the room, her gripped tightened on the gun turning to look at Pepper who's eyes were as wide as hers.

"Come." Thor ordered running down the corridor, Evie and Pepper followed close behind. Thor threw his hammer through the wall and Evie heard guns go diving behind the wall as Thor held out his hand and the hammer came flying into it before Thor shot lighting through the wall. "This way."

They ran through the hole and looked around, Evie and Pepper both immediately held their breath, the smell of burning flesh. It was _horrible_ and Evie wanted to be sick, but instead she swallowed a few times. She could see Pepper doing the same. Pepper and Thor started to the door but Evie saw a movement out of corner of her eye, one of the men was still alive, badly burnt but he held up his hand pointing it at Pepper, Evie immediately pointed the gun at him and pressed the trigger.

Thor and Pepper spun around at the gun shot and cry of pain from the other man, he had shot his gun into wall just missing Pepper, he had a bullet wound through his burnt arm.

"Good shot." Pepper complemented.

"I was aiming for his head." Evie murmured but grinned at Pepper. "What way now?"

"This way." Thor smashed through the door and they continued going down.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tony, Bruce and Stave glanced around at the noise; there were gunshots and something smashing, yelling, more gun fire, "What the hell?" Tony muttered, he moved to stand beside Steve protectively and Bruce followed standing on Steve's other side.

The noises were getting louder and louder until suddenly everything fell completely silent.

"Think it's over?" Bruce asked quietly followed by a crackle of electricity and screams of pain.

"Thor?" Tony guessed hopefully.

"Shhh." Steve muttered.

"You can hear?"

"_Shhh_!"

Tony obediently closed his mouth and waited a moment until he saw Steve grin the widest grin he's ever seen on Steve's face. "_Evie_!" Steve yelled loudly, "This way! In here!"

"Steve?!" Evie's voice was suddenly in Tony and Bruce's hearing and they grinned at each other. "Tony? Bruce?" Evie asked louder followed by Thor's booming voice.

"We're all in here!" Steve yelled back barely holding back laughter.

Someone hit the door loudly. "Yeah! Here!"

"You may want to step back!" Thor's voice yelled at Tony and Bruce both stepped in front of Steve.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Steve?!" Evie was yelling, "Tony?! Bruce?! Where are you?"

"Tony!" Pepper and Thor joined in, "Steve! Bruce!"

"Evie?!" Steve's voice caught their notice, it was muffled but it was definitely Steve, "This way! In here!"

"Steve?!" Evie yelled excitedly, glancing at the wide eyed Pepper and Thor, they were both listening carefully trying to work out what room they were in. "Tony? Bruce?!" she tried; Thor copied his voice louder than hers.

"We're all in here!" Steve's voice yelled, it was obvious he laughing.

Thor stepped towards a door banging loudly on it with his fist. "Yeah! Here!"

Thor kicked the bodies out of the way and turned back to Evie and Pepper, "You may want to step back." He warned to the two women who obediently stepped backwards, he repeated the warning to everyone inside the room

Thor swung the hammer back and then forward hitting the door with such force the entire door and most of the wall soared into the room. The three ran straight into the room looking around to find Tony and Bruce leaning over someone, they slowly separated to see Steve just behind them chained to the wall. On the other side of the room was a table full of various equipment.

The door lay in a crumpled head on the other side of the room and everything else was covered in a layer dust.

Pepper ran straight towards Tony while Evie did the same to Steve hugging him and kissing him deeply despite his arms being chained above him.

"I love you." Four voices stated simultaneously but neither couple noticed the other, instead just smiling surprised at each other, the first time for each couple to say the words.

Evie and Steve grinned at each other both looking as surprised as the other but just as excited. Evie leant forward and kissed him again.

At the same time Tony's mouth had dropped open in absolute surprise at his own words, Pepper was grinning in surprised happiness, "I love you." Tony repeated laughing, pulling her into his arms kissing her again.

Thor was hugging Bruce but he stepped back from the grinning man, to look at everyone, "Let's get the hell outta here?" Pepper asked making them all grin.

"Can we get my arms free first?" Steve asked and everyone looked at him surprised as if they'd forgotten his arms were chained.

Evie's hand twitched towards the chains stopping just beside them as Thor spoke, "Duck." Thor warned. Everyone stepped back and Steve ducked his head as Thor swung the hammer forwards breaking the chains in half.

Steve let out a breath of relief as his arms fell to his side, though he couldn't feel them. Thor stepped to his side and bent down to help Steve to his feet. Bruce grabbed his other side.

"What happened?" Pepper asked.

"How about we get out of here first and explain later?" Tony suggested as he grabbed some of the equipment from the table across the room pocketing it before grabbing a gun from a dead guard.

"Agrees." Bruce murmured as they limped down the corridor with Steve.

"We've found them." Pepper spoke putting her hand to her ear.

"Alright. Are they ok?"

"They seem it yeah."

"Good. Get back to the jet. Be careful." Natasha replied.

"You too."

"I apologise Captain but it will be much faster if I carry you." Thor suggested a moment later, he sounded very apologetic understanding how carrying him wouldn't be great for his pride.

Steve hesitated, he didn't want to be carried but at the same time it would make escaping a lot faster. "Alright." He let go of Bruce and gasped at Thor swinging him into his arms, carrying him bridal style down the dark corridor, one hand still holding the Mjölnir. Tony handed Bruce a spare gun from another guard and they ran down the corridor.

It was another few more minutes before they finally reached the upper levels, "Where are we?" Tony asked.

"In building 64. Alcatraz Island." Pepper answered glancing around nervously, gun at the ready.

"You worked out my message then?" Steve asked and Evie nodded.

"Fury didn't want us to come thinking it's a trap."

"And it is." Evie screamed as someone seemed to come out of nowhere and grabbed her arm. She screamed in such pain, it felt like every nerve was on fire, and fear, she couldn't see, or smell or hear, all her senses were gone. Everyone shot their guns simultaneously but something stopped them mid-air and then clattered to the floor.

"What the _hell_?" Tony muttered as the gun was pulled out of his hand and Evie suddenly stopped screaming and just whimpered. The pain was gone but Bale still held her arm tightly.

Thor let a struggling Steve out of his arms and he leant on Tony. Thor gripped his hammer tightly, he wanted to throw it at this man but he was afraid to hit Evie. "Let her go." Steve warned darkly.

"Who says?"

"The man that is going to kill you." Steve warned darkly, his warning serious.

"Oh I doubt that." Another voice joined them and a man walked into the almost destroyed corridor. He was wearing a black cape with red on the underside and a red helmet covering his head.

"Magneto."

"You know who I am then."

"Of course." Tony answered, "I'm sorry if I've got my facts wrong but you got the cure did you not?"

"Your facts are correct."

"Then how the hell do you have _powers_?"

"Watch your language."

Tony's eyebrow rose at that, "How about I watch my language when Evie is back with us yeah?"

Magneto looked at Bale whose grip tightened on Evie's arm making her whimper and everyone stepped forward with a growl of anger.

Bruce could feel the Hulk there under the surface _begging_ to come out, and Bruce wanted to let him, _wanted_ the Hulk to kill these men. But he couldn't.

_Hulk help?_ Hulk was asked.

_I'm sorry big guy. I actually wish you could._ Bruce told him.

Hulk growled but despite Bruce's words he wouldn't stop pushing against the surface, Bruce wasn't going to even _attempt_ to stop him, if the Hulk broke free then good. Bruce trusted him enough not to hurt his friends when there were other people to _kill_.

"What are you doing here?" Pepper ordered, sounding a lot calmer than she felt.

"None of your concern my dear. I just wanted an arc reactor, it's incredible."

"Could have asked nicely." Tony growled.

"Where's the fun in that?"

"None obviously."

"_Exactly_." Magneto smirked at them and lifted his hand, Tony's eyes widened and he groaned. "Hmm, I guess I'll have to take it myself." Tony grappled at his chest and his shirt started to rip as the arc reactor turned and the light flickered.

"Stop it!" Pepper yelled, Tony's was going pale, his eyes rolled back in his head, his hands moved to his chest scratching at it, trying to get rid of the pain.

Nobody knew what to do.

In the midst of all the confusion Evie lifted her hand and suddenly an avalanche of water came pouring into the corridor slamming into everyone pushing them to the floor, Bale released Evie and Magneto released Tony who fell to the floor unconscious. Pepper crawled straight to Tony as the water splashed into the wall at the end of the corridor and pooled around their feet.

Evie kicked away from Bale standing up and pulling Bruce and Steve who were the nearest to their feet. Bruce lent down to Tony who had fallen on the floor unconscious.  
"Tony? _Tony_ wake up." he tapped Tony's cheek but no reaction, he placed two fingers on his neck, "There's a pulse. It's weak though. We need to get him out of here."

"Wait, the arc reactor," Evie pushed it back inside and Tony took a shuddering gasp.

Bruce ripped at Tony's already ripped up shirt to check on it, "Good."

"Now would be a great time to suit up Banner?" Thor suggested, but Bruce shook his head.

"They gave me something, keeps the hulk at bay."

"Ah," Thor threw the Mjölnir at Magneto as the mutant moved, Magneto used all his power just to slow it down but it still hit into him and Magneto slammed backwards into Bale. Thor held out his hand and the Hammer flew into it.

"Captain, think you can walk on your own?" he asked bending down to pull Tony into his arms.

Steve nodded, "Yeah."

"Here." Bruce moved to Steve's side to help.

"Thanks. Evie are you ok?" Steve sent a concerned look to Evie as Pepper moved to help her.

Evie swallowed and nodded, "Yeah."

They all ran past Magneto barely glancing at him as they ran past him. "This is bigger than you know!" Magneto warned, Bruce just about resisted the urge to shoot him knowing it probably wouldn't work. Instead he told Hulk they were safe for the moment and ran past.

Until Magneto made a strangled noise of pain and shock and Bruce glanced back and grinned when he saw Magneto's hand, outstretched as if to control some form of metal around them but a wooden arrow was shot right through the hand. A moment later Clint and Natasha ran towards them.

"Come on." Natasha urged running past gesturing for them to follow.

They finally made it back to the jet and in the air before anyone spoke again, "You're all soaking wet! What the hell happened?!" Natasha asked finally glancing back at Tony who was lying across Thor and Pepper, and Steve who was leaning very heavily on Evie.

"Magneto." Pepper answered.

"That was _Magneto_ who I shot?" Clint asked.

"Yep. Thank God for _wooden_ arrows."

"So what happened down there? What did they do to Stark? Why are you all wet?" Natasha asked, glancing towards Bruce and Steve. Steve was leaning heavily on Evie and Bruce was beside Steve sitting opposite Pepper and Thor who had Tony lying across him.

Steve and Bruce shared a glance, "They wanted us to build an arc reactor." Bruce answered, "That man who hurt Evie - Bale. He's a mutant. I think he controls nerves, which obviously includes a lot of-"

"Pain." Steve finished.

"Bale would torture Steve to make us work faster."

"Shit." Clint muttered. "Why are you all wet?"

"Water started flowing down the corridor." Evie answered, "Duno where it came from, assumed you two did something."

The two agents shook their heads, "And Magneto?"

"No longer powerless apparently." Bruce answered. "Tony has shrapnel in his chest and I'm assuming Magneto was pulling in that, and he moved the arc reactor. We didn't know he was there until today."

"Shit." Clint repeated.

"Who is he?" Steve asked, "Magneto?"

"Uh, you've heard of the X-men right?" Clint asked.

"Yeah."

"Magneto is a mutant like them but one of the bad ones."

"Oh?"

"Yeah." Natasha started to explain the war between the mutants and humans until they finally arrived on the base. Evie stayed strangely silent throughout the entire journey.

Thor pulled Tony into his arms as they stepped off the jet and ran inside straight to the medical bay. Nobody wanted to leave Tony but they were forced to get themselves checked out.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tony groaned as he woke up and his chest was aching, his head was pounding and he was so tired and warm, he just wanted to go back to sleep but a voice pulled him back to reality. "Tony?" Tony grunted, "Tony? You awake."

"Mmhmm." Tony murmured and slowly attempted to open his eyes. He could feel a hand tightening in his. He opened his eyes fully, squinting against the light someone turned the light down, "Pepper?" he muttered grinning when he saw her sat at his side.

"Welcome back, Tony." Pepper grinned at him from his side; she was sat on a chair holding his hand on her lap. He was in his bedroom at the tower.

"I went somewhere?"

"Very nearly." Steve spoke up. Tony jumped turning his head to see the entire team sat around him, Pepper at his right, Natasha beside Pepper then Clint, Steve, Evie, Thor and Bruce.

"You're all here..." he muttered.

"We thought we lost you." Thor spoke, his voice low and concerned.

"Oh, I've been right here."

"How you feeling?" Bruce asked slowly.

"Tired. How long have I been out? What happened?"

"You've been out for a day, we went back to the S.H.I.E.L.D base got checked out and came home."

"Home..." Tony repeated the word with a huge grin on his face.

"Go back to sleep." Pepper ordered.

Tony nodded closing his eyes almost falling back to sleep before jerking awake again, "You'll gonna be here when I wake up?"

"We'll be here." Pepper promised.

"Good. That's good."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The next time Tony woke up he was surprised to find the team and Evie still sat around him, except this time everyone was asleep.

Except Evie who was grinning at him, "Morning sleepy head." She whispered.

"Mornin'." He slurred, "You're all still here." He grunted pulling himself into a sitting position. Evie's eyes widened hearing the vulnerable note in his voice but she quickly hid her surprise and smiled softly at him.

"Course we are." Tony caught her eye and smiled, "You probably shouldn't move." Evie warned changing the subjecting knowing Tony would want to.

"Nope. I shouldn't." Tony agreed grinning making Evie rolled her eyes. "But first time I got the shrapnel in my chest I started moving the day after I woke up."

"That was silly."

Tony chuckled, "Well I didn't have much of a choice."

Evie nodded uneasily obviously not sure how to answer that, "How are you feeling?"

"Peachy." Evie rolled her eyes again and Tony grinned at her relaxing back on the wall behind him, "Uh, could you grab me a drink please?"

"Course." Evie glanced around for a jug before giving up and slowly untangled herself from Steve, "Back in a mo."

Tony watched her go for a minute before looking over the rest of the team, Bruce. His best friend and science bro. Bruce was the first one to come live with him after the battle other than Pepper. They had grown close so quickly and were quick to come to each other's defence, Tony was the only one that had trusted the Hulk immediately, the others had grown to, slowly and even now not complete and utter trust.

Next to Bruce, Thor lay fast asleep and snoring. Thor was huge and terrifying but also a giant softy, Tony had to admit he didn't know Thor as well as some of them but Thor spent a lot of time away with Jane or on Asgard. But Thor was smarter than most people gave him credit for, as loath as Tony was to admit to it, he didn't understand lots of Earth things. But who would if they grew up on a different planet?

Then there was Steve. _Captain America_.

Tony had spent his entire childhood looking up to this man but most of his adulthood hating him. He was his hero as a child until he realised Tony had spent his entire childhood being compared to him. The man Howard never stopped looking for and died before he was found.

But now since Tony had gotten to know him Tony realised there was no better man to be compared to or to call friend. The past few days have been hell for him and Tony knew how that felt, he was tortured himself last time he hated watching a friend go through this.

Beside Steve, Natasha and Clint were sat on a love seat together. They were terrifying apart. They were petrifying together.

But they were his friends. It had taken a while for them to let their guard down around the team, especially to fall asleep around them, that was saying a lot. They hadn't wanted to move in at first it was only because people were giving Clint shit at S.H.I.E.L.D for killing other agents that Natasha convinced them both to move in. Tony couldn't be happier over it.

Lastly, Pepper, she was still holding his hand and Tony couldn't believe it.

He loves her.

He had known that for a while but he had said it out loud for the first time, and so had she. That just made him _ecstatic_.

He looked away from Pepper as Evie walked back into the room and handed him a glass of water, "Thanks." Tony watched Evie as she sat back down beside Steve. He had only known her two months but he already counted her as a close friend, they got along perfectly, with easy banter that Tony definitely enjoyed and had a laugh with. Especially when it came to her Tumblr.

But Tony was also glad Steve had found someone that he could love, he deserves it.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It wasn't long for the rest of the team to wake up and Tony started moving about so everyone went to do their own thing after making sure Tony was ok with that.

Evie and Steve decided to go back to Evie's apartment to tell the others exactly what had happened.

While they were walking Evie turned to Steve, "Hey Steve?"

"Hmmm?"

Evie hesitated, unsure how to ask it, "When we rescued you, did you uh...mean what you said?"

"That I love you?" Evie nodded, "Yes. I do."

Evie grinned at him, "Good. Because I love you too."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The next day Tony had to talk to S.H.I.E.L.D and he explained that _yes_ he had started to build the reactor but _no_ it wasn't going to work and he had been biding his time for the Avengers to save them.

Tony found it quite amusing at that point when Evie stormed in and announced that they would have been quicker if Fury didn't think it was a trap. Fury had sent her away angrily and Tony just laughed at his reaction. "It was a trap though." Pepper had told him, "Just we were ready for it, not exactly ready for Magneto, but ready for a fight."


	8. Press

**A New Avenger or a New Girlfriend?  
Half of the Avengers were reportedly taken by an unknown source for approximately two days. All Avengers refuse to answer any questions but there is some speculation about why they were missing. The most popular theory is that Stark was asked to build something.  
We are however aware that they recused by the other Avengers, one Pepper Potts and another woman 'Evelyn Rae'.  
After some research on the social networking site known as 'Tumblr', Rae is apparently Captain America's girlfriend and has been for a while, how we've managed to remain unaware is a mystery. Rae seems be excellent at staying well in the shadows until of course she slowly enters the top ten most followed user's on the social networking site .  
More information on page 4.  
24th November 2012**

"Hey Evie," Steve called.

"Hmm?" Evie glanced over from the sofa where she was resting with Bruce.

"You may want to read this"

Evie glanced at Bruce who shrugged and took the newspaper off Steve; he seemed to be the only one that bothered reading them. Evie read the short article with growing horror.

"You've done well," Pepper commented from over her shoulder, "I was in the paper the_ day_ I became Tony's _PA_, you've been Steve's girlfriend, what, two months now?"

"What am I meant to do?"

"When they ask you a question either, don't answer or just say 'talk to my PA'." Steve told her, "That's what I do at least."

"I don't have a PA."

"They don't have to know that." Tony grinned standing up and wrapped an arm around Evie's shoulders, "Listen and learn! I will teach you all there is to know about being in the lime light."

Evie sent a pleading look to Bruce who shrugged. "Sorry, but he was born in front of camera, more or less. I'd take his advice."

The next day Evie walked out of the tower to find camera's flashing in her face and twenty questions being asked at the same time. She just stared dumbly until Tony thankfully decided to save her and followed her outside, the paparazzi forgot about her instead wanting to talk to Tony, who put his arm around Evie's shoulder whispering, "Smile at the camera." before leading her back inside.

Evie didn't leave the tower for another week, all the Avengers had a large snowball fight on the roof, Evie was shocked, a snowball fight between superheroes is terrifying. It ended up with the two assassins against each other with everyone surrounding them, mostly to watch but partly to make sure they didn't fall off the side of the tower.

Evie secretly enjoyed the excuse to stay with Steve and make sure he's recovering from the torture. He looked strong but occasionally she'd catch his hands shaking from temporary nerve damage.

Steve sighed, he was trying to draw Bale, for S.H.I.E.L.D to know who they were looking for but his hands were still shaking too much. Giving up, he put the pad down and went to find Evie; he knew she was around some where she hadn't been to work in a few days because of the paparazzi but before he could stand up he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

Flinching he turned to see Thor stood above him, "Steve, friend, you seem very uneasy."

"Just a bit jumpy, I'm fine though."

"No, your hands are shaking." Thor nodded at the picture. "I've seen your drawing before they are usually much clearer. I know it's cold outside but the tower is warm."

"Temporary nerve damage." Steve shrugged, "It's nothing, I'll be fine in a few days."

"Have you spoken to a Doctor about this? To Doctor Banner at least?"

"There's no point."

"Captain, I do not wish to undermine you. But it's worth speaking to someone."

Steve wanted to tell Thor to mind his own business but he knew Thor was just concerned for him so he nodded, "I'll talk to Bruce if it'll make you feel better."

"It would. Thank you Captain."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Evie was watching Bruce and Tony work, the music around her was loud and annoying making her wonder _how_ they worked in this but they seemed to be doing well.

"Then make me miss you, Oh yeah, then make me miss you" Tony sung along loudly, "So wash your face away with dirt, It don't feel good until it hurts."

Bruce was humming along but didn't seem to realise it. They were working on separate projects, but occasionally shouting seemingly random words at each other then throwing assorted tools across the room.

Evie was fascinated watching these two work, they had only been working together for a few months but they seemed to work in perfect sync. The door slid open and Steve walked into the room his eyes searching.

"JARVIS," Tony called out and the music immediately turned to a normal level and Tony turned his questioning eyes to Steve, "Heard of knocking?"

"When do you _ever_ knock?"

"Not the point."

Steve rolled his eyes and smiled at Evie, "Uh Bruce mind if we talk in private?"

"Sure." Bruce wiped his greasy hands on a towel before following Steve into a side room.

"What do you think they're talking about?" Tony asked Evie.

"No idea,"

"JARVIS show us the video fe-"

"No, JARVIS don't show any video feed."

"But-"

"No Tony. No buts. He wanted to talk in private for a reason."

"He's your boyfriend, you're not curious?"

"Course I'm curious. But everyone needs their privacy."

Tony huffed but didn't ask again for video; instead he continued working and Evie jumped off her desk to watch him from the other side.

When they left the room Tony started at them curiously but Evie just jumped off the desk, grabbed Steve's hand and kissed him on the cheek, "Fancy some lunch?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When she finally did decide to attempt to go back to work she found the library fuller than she'd ever seen it and the next day found pictures of herself at work all over the internet.

"Do you ever get used to this?" she asked Pepper who laughed in response.

"Yes and no. I mean you learn to be more careful when you go out, or you learn to just ignore anything the news says about you. Hence the fact that none of us actually read the newspaper. Except Steve. Just wait; you'll be...what's the term? 'Shipped' with random people by the internet soon."

"Oh God, I wonder what our name'll be."

"Stevie." Clint answered returning from S.H.I.E.L.D.

"What?"

"That's your 'name' Stevie. Or Ragers but I think Stevie sounds better."

"Stevie sounds much better." Evie agreed.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Steve winced as he untangled himself from Evie. It had been a week since the kidnap and he was _still_ aching. Every time he moved he felt like someone was poking a needle into each and everyone one of his nerves.

He had spoken to Bruce who promised him it's just his nerves healing and he should be back to normal soon. So he climbed out of bed, shivered at the cold room, "JARVIS, can you turn the heating up?" He spoke quietly and almost immediately felt the room warm up, "Thanks." And he proceeded to get on with his usual morning routine but much slower.

When Evie woke up two hours later she wasn't surprised to find herself alone in the bed but that didn't quell the disappointment, she climbed out of the bed stretched and wandered into the elevator meeting Steve, Bruce and Pepper eating breakfast.

"Morning," she greeted kissing Steve softly. "Tony you're up early."

Tony just shrugged silently, he had been waking up early since the kidnap. Evie suspected he hadn't been sleeping enough but knew he would never talk about it, at least not to anyone other than Pepper, "Have some science to do don't we Bruce?"

"You're use of 'science' as a verb is particularly odd." Was Bruce's answer.

"Where are the others?"

"Thor is God knows where. The crazy assassins are...God knows where."

Evie chuckled and rolled her eyes, "What do they even do all day?"

"Work out?" Bruce suggested. "Have you got any plans today?"

"Well I'm gonna to attempt to go to the library."

"Good luck." Pepper told her sincerely.

Evie laughed and stole a bite of Steve's toast, "Well I'm late for work so I will see you later." she kissed the silent Steve, stole Tony's toast and went to get changed.

Evie grimaced as she walked into the library; she was one of the few people that actually enjoyed her job sitting in the quiet of the library and reading, updating her tumblr or just relaxing. She had to keep it organised but that was worth the great job. But now as she walked into the loud library full of people, reporters, only there to see her and hope to get information on the Avengers it just didn't feel relaxing anymore.

She stepped into the back room to hang up her coat and scarf, greeting James as he left the room to just catch a few moments peace. It felt nice to be away from the Avengers. Though she loves Steve more than she could explain it was always so busy at the tower, even when Tony and Bruce were doing science and everyone else was out, she just felt like she wasn't getting any privacy. She didn't want to move out but it was nice to get a few hours alone. She knew now that she's well known as Steve's girlfriend, it would be near impossible to get a moment alone.

So she decided to enjoy this time as she got it until things begun to die down.

The door opened and she turned to see who it was, it wasn't hard to guess it was a reporter, the man had short brown hair, a pen stuck behind his eat, a typical 'man-bag' and a tourist looking camera hung around his neck, "Who are you?"

"Uh I'm Mal...Malcolm, I'm new here."

"Yeah, except you're not. Only staff are allowed back here, now get the hell out before I call the police."

"Not the Avengers?"

"No. There's no need for them, although I'm happy to beat the shit out of you if you want?"

The report opened and closed his mouth a few times and Evie considered punching him in the face, instead she walked to the door and opened it sending him a look.

"I just want to ask a few-"

"And I won't answer a single one. If you want a meeting talk to my PA. Now leave."

The reporters sighed and left the office making Evie sigh and fall back to lean against the wall.

After a few minutes she decided to brace it again and went out into the craze that is her library. Quickly Evie found herself trapped having to try and push past all reporters.

Until Evie felt someone grab her wrist, she turned ready to attack when she recognised Darcy Lewis.

"Darcy! Hey, what's up?"

"Had the day off. Thought I'd rescue you for an hour or so. Come on." Darcy still holding Evie's arm dragged her through the crowd and outside the library into the snow, Evie muttered something about the cold and not having her coat but Darcy ignored her and dragged her into McDonalds. "I've found they don't expect us to come in here so we're safe." Darcy explained.

"Thank you." Evie fell into a seat as Darcy joined the que re-joining her a few minutes later with two packets of chips and two McFlurry's.

"So, getting used to the constant attention yet?" Darcy asked casually dipping a chip into the McFlurry. "Try it." she added when she saw Evie watching her curiously, she did so and her eyes widened with glee.

"Wow."

"I know right."

Evie ate a few more before remembering Darcy's question, "Not really, I'm used to finding a corner and hoping nobody sees me for the next few hours."

Darcy laughed at that, "Don't worry, it should die down soon."

"Have you gone through this?"

"Ish. Luckily not as full frontal as you, being the best friend of a Norse's God's girlfriend puts you at least half in the lime light. More than enough for me."

"God, how did Jane do?"

"She's a natural at it actually. Although it's a bit easier cause of where we work an' all. Grumpy gets us out of it more often."

"Lucky bugger. You need a librarian there?"

Darcy laughed, "Sorry but we're up to date with technology. We don't us those old fashioned things you call...'_books_'!" Evie giggled at Darcy's dramatic voice and relaxed backwards on the seat. "How's the kiddies doing? Heard all about the kidnap, hard not to."

"Yeah, pretty good I think. They haven't spoken of it really." Evie shrugged, "Apparently the Jolly Green Giant couldn't actually come out for a bit."

Darcy literally spit out a chip in a fit of giggles at Evie's nickname. "Have you called him that to his face?"

"No..."

"I dare you Evie. I triple dare with chocolate chip cookies you!"

"You...what?"

"It means you have to do it. It's in the rules."

"Uh..."

"Exactly." Darcy sent her a smug grin.

"I'll try; I blame you if he hulks and throw's Thor out the window again."

"_Again_?! Oh I would tase _Grumpy_ to see that!"

"I would give _anything_ to watch _that_!" The two girls laughed grinning at each other, "Seriously Darcy where have you been all my life?"

"In a cupboard under the stairs." Darcy answer automatically making Evie giggle.

They talked for a while longer getting to know each other before Evie decided to brave the library again, this time, with Darcy's help, she managed to throw most of the reporters out.

She got home at the same time as Bruce arrived home, "Hey how was work?"

"Thanks to Darcy I think I've only had 100 pictures taken today."

"You get used to it; right now I'm certain there's at least 12 reports around us."

"Really?" Evie glanced back, "They're like ninja's!" Bruce chuckled and put his hand on the small of her back leading her into the tower.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Captain America or the Hulk?  
****[Picture of Evie and Bruce outside the tower Bruce hand on Evie's back]  
Evelyn Rae was since looking very comfortable with Bruce Banner AKA the Hulk.  
More information on page 2.  
1st December 2012**

Evie didn't even bother reading the rest, "Hey Stark! How have you avoided conspiracies that you with someone other than Pepper?"

"I take you rarely read the newspaper before you were on it?" Tony answered grinning, "I've pretty sure I've 'had sex'," he made quote marks in the air with his hands, "With everyone according to the news, don't worry you'll get used to it, as long as you know the truth it's fine."

"I would suggest _not_ reading the newspaper." Clint suggested pulling it out of her hands.

"Hey Evie! How about you confused and shock all the readers?" Tony asked.

"How?"

"You and Pepper go out together and kiss!"

"Tony!" Pepper and Evie scolded at the same time, Tony just stared innocently.

"What?"

"I think that's a good idea." Steve spoke up, the two women and turned to him surprised. "What? It'll annoy the press."

"You do know that's not why Tony wants it to happen." Evie told him carefully.

Steve frowned in thought before rolled his eyes. "Oh! _Tony_!"

"What? Two sexy girls kissing! What man wouldn't want _that_?"

If this was a few months ago Evie would have blushed at _the Tony Stark_ saying that she was sexy, now she just rolled her eyes. "Is that _all_ you think about?"

"Yes."

Both Evie and Pepper caught each other's eyes and Evie could see a sparkle of mischievousness in Pepper's. "Alright then boys." Evie grinned stalking towards Pepper who stood up and the two women crashed their lips together. When they separated Tony grabbed Pepper's arm. "Bedroom. Now."

Pepper laughed but didn't mind following him. Evie giggled at Tony's reaction and turned to see Steve actively avoiding her eyes, making her giggle more.  
"Sorry about that. Just wanted to see Tony's reaction."

"It's ok." Steve squeaked, "I'm gonna uh..." he jogged to the elevator murmuring something about a cold shower.

Evie smirked and sat down, a moment late heard a cough and glanced up to see a shocked Clint hanging out the air vents, "Uh...what just happened?" Evie just laughed.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

That same day Evie and Pepper walked outside of the tower together, aware of the paparazzi around them but both ignored them, they decided they might as well make a day of it so they went shopping together. In one of the shops, they stopped and barley concealed themselves behind a shelf before glancing at each other and kissing. They both tried to make it like they couldn't help themselves.

**Girlfriends cheating...together?  
[Picture of Evie and Pepper kissing]  
Miss Virginia 'Pepper' Potts and Miss Evelyn Rae were caught kissing in a Forever 21. Are they cheating? Are the boyfriends aware of this?**  
**More information on page 2.**  
**December 2nd 2012**

"_Cap_!" Tony yelled, Steve ran around the common looking around for danger.

"What?"

"Our girlfriends are cheating on us!"

"_What_? Oh, right for the press. Can I see?"

"Course." Tony handed him the paper and walked off and Steve read it with an amused smile on his face, he knew it was probably wrong to find it so amusing to annoy the press but they had been getting on his last nerve since he woke up here, constantly following them. He had learnt to ignore them now but that didn't change that they're there. Doing something that annoyed them was funnier than it should be.

**I'm sexy and I know it,  
****I'm sexy and I know it,  
****I'm sexy and I know it...  
****Check it out, Check it out.  
****Ah... Girl look at that body  
****Ah... Girl look at that body  
****Ah... Girl look at that body  
****Ah... I work out**

Steve's eyes widened at the song wondering where the heck it was coming from but eventually located Evie's phone on the side, "Evie?" He called but she didn't answer.

"Miss Rae is currently in the shower." JARVIS thought to tell him.

"Ah thanks." Steve glanced at the caller ID: Irene, the ringtone made more sense after that. He decided there was no harm in answering. "Hello?"

_**"Evelyn Grace Rae!"**_ Irene yelled, Steve took a moment to realise he was wrong. There_ was _harm in answering.

"Ow. No Irene, this is Steve. Sorry Evie's in the shower."

**_"Why aren't you with her? Wait no, not the point, tell her to get the fuck out and speak to me!"_**

"Uh..."

**"_Have you read the paper?"_**

"Yes."

**"_So? Explain?"_**

"It's a joke, to annoy the press."

**"_So Evie's not gay?"_**

"Not as far as I know."

**"_She could have warned me," _**Irene sighed dramatically and Steve could almost hear her rolling her eyes. **_"Tell her to call me when she gets out?"_**

"I will,"

**"_Cheers. See ya Steve. Love ya!"_**

"Uh...love ya too?"

Irene laughed loudly before cutting off the phone leaving a very confused Steve on the other end. "Was that Irene?" Evie's voice made Steve jump; he turned to see her stood in just a towel with another towel on her head. He glanced around nervously half expecting to see some random man leering at her.

"You know we have a shower on our floor right?"

Evie rolled her eyes, "Yeah, but Tony leaves the best towels in this one," She shrugged, "Would you rather me get dressed before I came out here?"

"Uh...yes?"

"I'll get changed next time then." She promised, "So was that Irene?"

"Hmm? Oh right yeah," he put her phone back on the side, "Sorry, I knew if nobody answered she'd come running over."

"And probably come into the bathroom!." Evie agreed, "Thanks. What did she want?"

"She read the paper and told me to tell you to call her."

"Ah thanks. I'll go get dressed then I'll call her back. Love you." Evie winked at Steve and kissed him before going into the elevator.

"Love you too." Steve murmured in return. It was at that moment he actually realised how similar Evie and Irene are. It shouldn't be such a surprise, since they grew up together, but he hadn't actually seen it before now, just in the confident way they spoke and walked. Evie was shyer and more tentative whereas Irene was self-assured and assertive but if he didn't know any better he would think they were sisters.

When Evie came back to the common to ring Irene back she found her best friend talking to Steve, no, talking _at_ Steve. When Steve saw her he looked hopeful, "Irene, I was about to call you back." Evie spoke loudly over her friend's rambles.

"You were too slow. So you're not gay?"

"Nope. I'm sorry Irene, I love you and I would have you any day, but I'm straight."

Steve realised this was going to be awkward, so muttered "I'll leave you to it." and left quickly.

Irene stepped closer to Evie lowering her voice, "Have you two..." Irene made a vague gesture with her hands and Evie shook her head.

"I want to, and you know I'd call you the next morning but he wants to wait...old fashioned values and all that."

"You've lived here for almost two months! Do you share a bed?"

"Yeah, _course_."

"_Phew_. Not _that_ old fashioned then."

"No. Thank God. But I don't mind waiting, I love him."

Irene's eyes widened, "You _love_ him?!"

"Yeah..."

"Have you told him?!"

"Yeah, when we recused him." Evie realised that she probably should've told her before now.

"Evie!" Irene squealed hugging her best friend. "This is brilliant! Why haven't you told me before?"

"I...I didn't even realise until I said it I guess."

"Has he said it back?"

"Yeah."

Irene squealed.

"Ow!" Bruce muttered walking into the room, "Hulk has sensitive ears, in case you didn't know."

"Sorry!" Irene didn't sound very sorry, "Bruce-y! Evie and Steve love each other."

"I'm aware."

"But they said it!"

"I was there."

"Lucky bugger! We need a girl talk!"

Bruce stood in the kitchen watching them as if they're a couple of animal he'd never encountered before. The two girls ignored him and Irene dragged Evie to the sofa sitting her down.

"I have work." Evie protected.

"Screw work! This is important! After Jacob especially! _Why_ the hell haven't you told me?!"

"I didn't even think about it,"

"Evie! This is incredible! I mean, after Jacob I was scared you would never met anyone else, I tried but you weren't interested."

"I know Rene; I was kinda grieving at that point." Bruce shifted, he felt like he should leave but he didn't want to interrupt them. "I didn't expect to love anyone after that but I do. I love Steve. But Rene, I have work to get to, so hold of this heart to heart?"

Irene scowled, "JARVIS, where's Pepper and Natasha?"

"Miss Potts is currently engaging in Coitus with Mr Stark. Agent Romanov left for S.H.I.E.L.D 4 hours ago."

"Right, us four girl are going on a girls night out tonight ok? I won't take no for an answer."

"Uh-"

"Good." Irene hugged Evie and kissed her cheek, "See you tonight chick. Love ya." With that she entered the elevator and left. Evie turned to the kitchen to grab her drink and saw Bruce's baffled look.

"What?"

"Is that how girls interact?"

Evie frowned, "What do you mean? You've seen me and Irene together before."

"Never like..._that_."

"Oh..." Evie wasn't sure what to say. "It's quite normal, for us at least."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When Evie left the tower for work she was immediately bombard with questions.

'Are you cheating on Captain America?'

'Why would you cheat on him?'

'Are you gay?'

"I'm sorry; I don't know what you're talking about." Evie answered, "I would never cheat on Steve."  
"How can you deny it? There's proof!"  
"Photoshop."

She pushed past the reporters getting used to needing to and reached her library she found herself denying the accusation at least every 10 minutes and knew Pepper would be doing the same.

_They're both coming tonight. – IT_

_Where are we going? –ER_

_The Rose and the Barber -IT_

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Harvey Wallbanger for me please." Evie ordered, "Girls?"

"Long island iced tea." Pepper asked.

"Simple Apple Martini to start with."

"Oh, I have to go for an Incredible Hulk!" Irene laughed.

The bartender almost immediately handed them all their drinks and they moved to a small booth, "So," Irene spoke sipping at her drink, "Pepper, what is Tony like in bed?"

Natasha's eyes widened "Is this what girls talk about on girls nights out?"

"Yep. Boyfriends, girlfriends, we bitch, we gossip and none of it leaves this circle." Irene answered simply, "Have you never had a girls night out?"

Irene silently shook her head, "How do you know it won't leave this circle?"

Evie shrugged, "Unspoken rule. If you break it you're officially labelled a bitch." Natasha's eyes widened further but the other girls didn't react, instead they leant closer to Pepper, "So?"

"_Amazing_!" Pepper answered with a moan of content, "I mean, like seriously amazing."

"Ohh, maybe I should have a go," Irene teased.

"You dare and I'll slap you into next week."

Irene shrugged, "Going from Friday to Friday. No arguments here." the group laughed, Natasha's a bit more confused than the others. "I hear you said the three deadly words."

Pepper nodded, "I did."

"And?"

"I do."

"He said them back?"

"He did."

Irene squealed, "We have four lovebirds here."

"Well, you have to get an Incredible Hulk to drink? I think we may have more lovebirds here, Rene-y." Irene blushed making Evie's eyes widened, "Oh God, you really like him!"

"Not that much."

"Irene! You're blushing! You _never_ blush!

"Alright, yeah I like him but does he feel the same?"

"I wouldn't be surprised." Natasha added, "He looks at you differently."

"Differently how?"

"How Tony looks at Pepper."

Irene didn't seem to know what to say, "Irene, you're speechless! Girls, I have to congratulate you. I've _never_ seen her speechless."

"Excuse me Miss Rae, Miss Potts may we have a moment of you time?" A voice interrupted.

"No."

"We just want to ask about your kiss."

"Which never happened." Pepper sighed, "Seriously, has _nobody_ heard of photoshop?"

"Please, this won't take more than 5 minutes."

Natasha sighed and stood up glaring at the reporter, Evie winced seeing the fear in the reporters eyes, "How about you leave us alone, if you interrupt us again you'll find out _exactly_ why they call me the Black Widow." And the reported proceeded to back away quickly and Natasha sat back down.

"I should hire you as my bodyguard." Evie muttered, "These reports are pissing me off. They're everywhere!"

"You get used to it Evie, they just fade into the background eventually." Pepper told her softly before turning her eyes on Natasha, "So, we've gone through all of us, what about you Nat?"

"What about me?"

"You and Clint, I've seen the looks,"

Natasha's eyes widened again, "There's nothing between us."

"Yeah, _except_ years of partnership and trust beyond belief."

"Come on; don't be a bitch! Tell us!" Irene sighed.

"No, really. There's nothing."

"Ah. But you _want_ something?"

Natasha shrugged her face unrevealing, "I owe him a debt. That's all."

"Yeah. He saved your life blah, blah, blah, all that shit." Irene shrugged, "You've saved his life how many times now?"

"It wasn't just my life; he brought me to the agency. Helped my wipe my slate clean."

"Then help him wipe his _slate_ clean." Natasha's eyes went wide once more and she didn't look completely sure how to reply to that.

"So on a slightly different subject," Evie spoke up seeing that Natasha didn't want to talk about this and Irene wouldn't stop unless she changed the subject, "Who was your first?"

"Robert. 18." Pepper smirked.

"Jacob. 19." Evie answered immediately.

"Yevgenij. 16." Natasha replied a bit more hesitantly.

"That's a strange name?" Irene asked curiously.

"It's Russian."

"Oh, a Russian guy," Irene winked and Natasha rolled her eyes.

"I'm Russian."

"_Seriously_?!"

"Yeah, born and raised."

"That's awesome."

"So, you're first Irene?" Pepper asked.

"Johnny Storm." both Irene and Evie spoke at the same time in the same dreamy voice, Evie taking the mick out of Irene, "14."

"14?" Pepper looked surprised and Irene just smirked.

"Irene's always been a bit of a slut." Evie grinned at her oldest and best friend.

"Isn't that an insult?" Natasha asked curiously.

"Yep. But it is true." Irene grinned and Evie rolled her eyes. "I hear Johnny's one of the Fantastic Four now though."

"Yeah, we're in alliance with them."

"Seriously? That's awesome! I should give him a call; prove I'm more flexible now."

"Who else are you in alliance with?" Evie asked Natasha.

"The X-men."

"The mutants?" Irene asked sharing a glance with Evie, "What do you...think of mutants?"

Natasha and Pepper both shrugged, "As long as they use their powers for good, I don't have a problem with them, why? Do you?"

Irene shook her head, a small smile on her face, "Nope. No problem at all." she downed her drink and grinned at the other girls.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

'_Holidays are coming, holidays are coming!_'

Tony, Peppers and Evie's froze at the music. For the first time since the rescue all the Avengers were at the tower at the same time. Thor had managed to drag the two scientists from the lab long enough to watch a film together. Which they did so in comfortable silence until the adverts came on when the film finished.

"What's the date?" Tony asked urgently.

"Monday 3rd of December." JARVIS answered automatically.

"December? Shit."

"What's wrong?" Natasha asked frowning.

"It's Christmas!" Tony exclaimed loudly. He suddenly transformed into a eight year old high on sugar.

"Christmas?" Steve asked, "Correct me if I'm wrong and if it's changed in 70 years...but that's the 25th of December right?" Everyone chuckled at Steve's dumbfounded expression except Thor who just frowned.

"Yes, once this advert is played," Tony picked up the remote and rewound it to watch the entire Coca-cola advert, "it's officially almost Christmas."

"What is...Christmas?" Thor asked.

"Explain it to him. Back in a bit!" Tony jumped from his seat and ran straight out of the room without another word.

It wasn't until early the next morning when Tony returned.


	9. Christmas

Steve, as per, woke up at 6:30am, untangled himself from Evie, and went for his usual morning run. The snow went easily past his ankles but he still tried to go for his run anyway. This was only time when reporters didn't surround him. He stopped at the café, chatted with Beth and made his way home.

He made his way back to the tower by 8 and stopped a mile or so from the tower where a huge crowd seemed to be gathering looking up at the tower muttering words of amazement and shock, he followed their line of sight to see the tower.

It looked incredible, covered with lights, tinsel; a giant star sat on the top spinning around slowly, the large STARK was shining brightly with stars and tinsel surrounding it and the snow that had fallen across it made it look magical. It looked like a giant Christmas tree.

"Wow." Steve muttered in astonishment.

"Hey, your Captain America aren't you?" A voice at his right spoke up, he turned to see a young, English sounding man next to him. Steve nodded and smiled. "When did you lot do this?"

"Uh...To – Iron Man must have done it overnight."

"It's amazing."

"It is," Steve agreed easily before muttering a goodnight and continuing into the tower greeting JARVIS as he entered the elevator. He chuckled at the mistletoe placed on the roof of the elevator. He knew he _should_ pull it down - nobody else would notice it until Tony pointed it, thus forcing them to kiss and he didn't particularly want to be trapped in the elevator having to kiss Pepper. He'd probably end up embarrassing himself too much. But when he tried to pull it down he found he couldn't, at least not without pulling the entire roof down. Knowing Tony he'd invent glue just for this. So Steve decided to take the stairs form now on, until after Christmas at least.

He was afraid of what he'll find in the common room, but also excited - they were actually going to celebrate Christmas? He hadn't even thought about the holiday since long before he became Captain America.

In far corner of the room was an absolutely _huge_ Christmas tree; it was at least another 5 or 6 inches taller than he is and around the room were at least 8 large boxes of what he assumed were Christmas decorations. Steve found himself disappointed it wasn't decorated but he assumed Tony had planned for it to be decorated throughout the day.

Tony was fast asleep on the sofa.

Steve watched Tony for a minute, he looked so innocent when he slept, Steve knew Tony had been through a lot and had come out the other side still fun loving and carefree but - he could always see the tiredness in his eyes, the flinching whenever someone mentioned underground. When he had first met Tony, he'd seemed like a bit of a joker. He had been some rich boy clever enough to invent himself a suit of iron and stupid enough to think he could save the world. But now - Steve knew a little of what Tony had been through. Pepper had told him about the torture he received, but only in vague terms. So that he knew not to mention it.

"It's rude to stare." Tony muttered tiredly.

"Sorry," Steve blushed; he hadn't expected to be caught.

Tony just shook his head as he sat up slowly, eyes bleary, "Like it?"

"What the tower? It's incredible."

"Yeah it is." Tony grinned lazily. "If I do say so myself.", he stood up stretching and clicking his back and neck before making himself some coffee frowning at the breakfast bar, "Where's my breakfast?"

Steve rolled his eyes and started making pancakes, "What did you do before we all lived here?"

"Uh...coffee for breakfast. Take-out for lunch, take-out for dinner. Occasionally Pepper would make me food. That's if I actually knew it was time for food. Bruce tells me now."

"Of course." Steve rolled his eyes.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Evie woke up yawning and stretching, she grabbed her phone to check the time, 8:28 and climbed out of bed pulling on her dressing down.

She was becoming used to being around the Avengers now but she seemed to be the only one, except Tony and Pepper, that didn't get dressed before going down for breakfast.

She left the bedroom and walked out of the lounge into the small corridor where the elevator was sat. She pressed the button and a moment later it opened to find Bruce already heading down.

"Morning." She greeted him cheerfully.

"Hello." He chuckled softly a shy look coming onto his face as she stepped inside and the doors slid closed. Evie frowned, trying to work out his amusement.

"What?" Bruce pointed upwards and Evie looked laughing when she saw the mistletoe hanging above them.

"Ah, well I guess we have no choice then." Bruce paused; he obviously hadn't expected her to agree. As much as Evie would rather it be Steve, it _is_ tradition, soshe couldn't exactly refuse. Laughing at his shocked expression Evie stepped forward and pressed a light chaste kiss against his lips before pulling back and winked as the elevator stopped. She stepped out.

Bruce and Evie walked in at the same time and both stopped to stare at the tree. "There's a giant tree in here." Bruce announced simply.

"Yes there is." Steve answered matter-of-fact. "You should go outside later. The entire tower looks like an extensively decorated Christmas tree."

"Why am I not surprised?" Evie muttered with a grin towards Tony, "You spent all night on it?"

"And most of the morning." Tony nodded.

When Clint and Natasha stepped out, often waking up at the same time due to living on S.H.I.E.L.D base for so long. Clint walked out of the elevator first and Natasha almost bumped into him as Clint had just stopped.

"Whoa." Clint murmured.

"Clint! Why have you- Oh..." Natasha murmured staring at the tree.

"Tony." Steve, Evie and Bruce explained simultaneously, Tony just grinned.

"Did you kiss?" Evie asked and the two assassins just looked at each other and then back at Evie in bafflement.

"Mistletoe." Bruce explained, "On the roof of the elevator." The two assassins turned to look but the doors had already closed.

Steve glanced between Evie and Bruce who had come out of the elevator together. He chose not to comment on it. It is just an old tradition.

"Mistletoe...?" Natasha repeated looking confused, Clint just looked amused.

"It's a tradition. If two people step under the mistletoe they have to kiss." Evie explained encase they didn't understand.

"It's an _old_ tradition." Steve had to agree.

The assassins looked at each other again before Clint smirked confidently and stepped closer to Natasha placing a light kiss on her lips before stepping back and making himself some coffee and taking his share of the pancakes.

Pepper almost walked into Natasha as she stepped out of the elevator a moment later as Natasha was still standing completely still staring at the tree and Clint a looking perplexed.

"How the hell did you get that in here?" Pepper exclaimed.

"Uh...flew it up the elevator shaft..." Tony admitted sheepishly.

"You _flew_ a tree that's _taller_ than _Thor_ up the bloody _elevator shaft_?" Pepper yelled at Tony - who just shrugged.

"Well, there are no accessible windows to this room, at least none that are big enough. So yes. I flew a giant Christmas tree up the elevator shaft." Tony's sheepish smile switched to a full out grin, "We'll _all _taking the day off and decorating today" He announced, his voice giving no argument.

"Decorate?" Clint repeated his words in apparent surprise.

"Yes, you know that thing when you put decorations up and make the house _Christmas-y_?"

Clint rolled his eyes, "Yes, I know what decorate means. Just...does this mean we're doing Christmas?" Clint asked carefully, an unreadable expression on his face.

"We, Legolas, are most _definitely_ doing Christmas." Tony said brightly, turning to look at the assassin giving him a wide grin which, he was surprised to see, was returned brightly.

"Awesome."

"How are we gonna do this?" Bruce asked.

"First, finish the lovely breakfast Rogers made us. Then we do whatever the hell we like, I bought boxes of different decorations and got some sent from L.A."

"L.A?" Evie asked confused.

"I've got a house there."

Everyone nodded at Tony's plan, deciding not to argue with him. They fell into quiet conversation as they ate they breakfast, once Thor made his way into the kitchen they were all actually together for the first morning in a while.

Soon after they finished they went straight to the boxes ready to unpack and decorate. "Any kinda system?" Evie asked.

"Whatever works for you." Tony shrugged moving to pick up the box of baubles and moved to the tree.

Natasha followed him standing beside him as they put the baubles on the tree. "Why are we doing this, Stark?" Natasha asked him quietly.

Tony glanced back to the rest of the group who were slowly pulling various decorations out of boxes: Pepper and Bruce were laughing as they wrapped tinsel around each other. Thor was smelling the tinsel and touching it as if it was the weirdest thing he'd ever seen. Evie was frowning at the lights as she tried to untangle them. Steve watching her laughing and attempting to help her but just ended up getting his hands tangled up and Clint was staring at the ceiling as if mentally mapping out where to put the decorations. They all had bright eyes as they laughed and actually seemed to be enjoying decorating with innocent excitement in their eyes.

Tony had never seen them all with such joy in their eyes.

"Jolly green giant," Tony had gotten obsessed with that nick-name since Evie used it last week, "When was the last time you celebrated Christmas?"

"Uh...not since before the incident, Tony." the scientist answered, confused by the question as he helped Pepper untangle herself from the tinsel.

"Gramps, same question." Tony yelled across the room.

"What, had a tree and the whole thing? Uh...long before the serum at least. I mean we stopped and had a drink on Christmas day but yeah..." Steve answered confused by the question.

Tony nodded, "Legolas, what about you?"

"Far too many years." he said distractedly not looking away from the ceiling.

"Thor didn't even know what Christmas is, and you? Have you _ever_ had a nice, calm, holiday Romanov?" he asked, and she sighed but shook her head, not bothering to hide her surprise at the depth of Tony's reasoning. "That's, _Natasha_, is why." Tony stared at her for a moment, searching her eyes before grinning and turning away to do the other side of the tree.

Natasha smiled softly scared to find herself looking forward to this Christmas; she's never even noticed when this date had come about ever before but now...she didn't let herself dare hope.

Nobody noticed as Clint slipped away, returning a few minutes later with his bow and quiver full of simple wooden arrows.

He grabbed a reel of lights before climbing silently onto the top of the large fridge and looked at the ceiling.

He affixed the end of the strand of lights where the wall met the ceiling before he unravelled a long length of the lights wrapping it twice around the shaft of an arrow. He checked that he had enough slack so that the entire reel didn't go flying with the strain, then nocked the arrow into his bow and took aim for where he wanted the next point to be and released. The arrow going flying right into the spot it wanted.

Everyone stopped in what they were doing and turned to look at where the arrow had come from to find Clint sat on the fridge nocking another arrow and taking aim.

"Clint, what in the _hell_ are you doing?" Tony exclaimed in complete wonder.

"Hanging lights." He answered simply before letting go of another arrow with a strand connected.

"How else should a bow-wielding assassin hang Christmas lights?" Bruce asked Tony sarcastically making everyone chuckle.

"You are the one that gave him the job Stark." Natasha added as another arrow went flying.

"That had better look awesome, featherhead."

"Oh, it will Tony. _It will_." There was absolutely _no_ doubt in Clint's voice making the team laugh lightly.

"You better fix those holes when we take them down Barton." Pepper threatened.

Clint shrugged, "Why don't I just hit the same ones next year?"

Everyone paused at that statement.

_Next year_.

He had already assumed there was going to be a next year with the team.

But nobody was going to correct him. Everyone _wanted_ this to last. The companionable fun banter between them, they wanted this next year.

"So, who wants to put the Angel on the top?" Tony asked a moment later a grin on his face.

Everyone looked around at each other before Steve stepped forward reaching out to grab Evie's hand. "Evelyn should do it."

"Me? Why me?"

"No, he's right." Tony agreed looking around as everyone nodded, "You were the one that worked out Steve's message to save us, and you'll be spending Christmas here anyway so why not."

"I'm spending Christmas _here_?" Evie repeated Tony's words with surprise.

"Well yeah." Tony sent her a questioning glance, "Did you have somewhere else in plan?"

Evie shook her head, "No...I uh...I normally spend it with Maggie but I obviously can't, so I didn't have plans. I just didn't realise you had assumed I was spending it here."

"Well dur. You live here so why the hell not?" Tony rolled his eyes, "So, Angel?"

"I won't be able to reach it."

"I can help." Thor offered, before anyone could say anything else Evie yelped as she was suddenly lifted into the air, strong hands gripping her waist. Steve, being the only one that could reach, gave her the Angel and she put it onto the tree. Once it was placed everyone cheered before doing back to what they had been doing.

It took exactly 37 arrows for Clint to string lights the way he had imagined and the moment he finished he jumped from the fridge, "JARVIS, blackout the windows and switch these lights on." He murmured quietly. Everyone fell silent as the room went dark from the windows followed by murmurs of confusion.

Until the lights switched on and they gasped.

On the ceiling Clint had put the Avengers 'A' out of the white lights with mini star in the middle and a circle of red, blue and green lights to go around the 'A'.

"Whoa." Steve murmured followed by sounds of amazement and appreciation from the others.

"Awesome enough for you?" Clint asked lightly.

"Yeah." Tony swallowed. "That's...pretty awesome."

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
I Luuuove you, Evie! Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
_Are you drunk? Please don't kiss Steve! Kiss Bruce instead, I'm sure he'd be willing!  
513 Notes. [Dec 4, 2012]_

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
Ahaha I bet Brrce is questioning his sexuality as we speak!  
_TONY NOOOOO!  
720 Notes. [Dec 4, 2012]_

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
SHHHHHIT DELETE THOSE MESSAGES PLEASE EVIE I'LL BUY YOU A FERRARI!  
_Nah, I think it's funner watching you suffer. I shall leave it here, for the whole of the internet to see.  
1003 Notes. [Dec 5, 2012]_

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
'Funner' is not a word.  
_So you've retorted to correcting me? Never thought you'd sink that low.  
918 Notes. [Dec 5, 2012]_

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
You do not want to know how low I'll go.  
_Tony, threatening doesn't work with you. If I were you, I'd just stick to inventing.  
1102 Notes. [Dec 5, 2012]_

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
Clint just blamed me for stealing Natasha's éclair. Currently hiding in the bathroom  
_Just told her.  
1261 Notes. [Dec 6, 2012]_

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
Those bruises are going to take ages to fade! Until AFTER Christmas at least!  
_I'm so sympathetic.  
989 Notes. [Dec 6, 2012]_

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
I let you live in MY tower and you respond with sarcasm!  
_I don't live with you.  
893 Notes [Dec 6, 2012]_

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
And the last time you slept in your own apartment was...?  
_No comment.  
2407 Notes [Dec 7, 2012]_

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
Exactly. You live with me!  
_Technically I live with Steve cause he has his own floor.  
493 Notes [Dec 7, 2012]_

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**"Captain! Were you aware of your girlfriends exploits?"**  
**"Mr Stark! How do you feel that your girlfriend is cheating on you with a woman?"**  
**"How do you feel that these two woman were having an affair right under your nose?"**  
**"What are you going to do about it?"**

Steve finally sighed and spun around to the many reporters yelling questions at him and Steve, "_What_?" he barked out shocking the reporters that were so used to him either ignoring them or being polite. Not angry.

Steve had just had enough, he, Tony and Thor had gone out with Darcy who offered to help them with Christmas shopping for their respective girlfriends. "Are you aware that your girlfriend is cheating on you?"

Steve sighed, "She's not."

"There's proof. A picture was taken of her and Pepper."

"Yeah. They did that to piss you off." Tony admitted laughing, "Now can you leave us the hell alone to shop?"

But of course that just caused the reports to ask even more questions of why and how they're certain. The reporters sounded angry which just served to amuse Tony more, Steve chuckled seeing the reporters annoyance, Darcy looked confused but was more than happy to annoy the reporters.

Thor being the biggest of the four of them moved in front of the reporters, "Leave. Now." he ordered using his 'King' voice that he had learnt from his father, "Leave us in peace."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Merry Christmas!" Tony yelled bursting into the room wearing Iron Man Pyjamas and a large grin. He stood at the end of the bed staring at them expectantly.

Evie and Steve stared sitting up blearily, the comforter slid off Steve's naked chest. He looked at the clock beside his bed. "Tony, its 6am!"

"You normally wake at anyway 6!"

"Not after going to bed at 3!"

"What were you two doing?" Tony asked in a suggestive voice.

Steve blushed and glared at Tony, "Dancing at your Christmas Eve/Thank-God-the-world-didn't-end-on-the-21st party."

"Oh yeah." Tony frowned and put his hand against his head as if he had forgotten he had a hangover.

"Have you even gone to bed?" Evie asked knowingly.

"Sleep's for losers."

Evie and Steve shared an exasperated glance, "We'll be down soon."

"But it's _Christmas_!" Tony stated childishly.

"You're a zombie at _nine_ every other morning." Evie sighed but sat up untangling herself from the comforter.

"It's Christmas!" Tony repeated excitedly, he threw them both a pair of PJ's landing on the bed beside them both, "Get changed be down in 5." with that he ran out leaving the door open.

Steve sighed and sat up, "Pepper did warn us." he murmured with a yawn climbing out of bed and looking at the pyjamas Tony had thrown him. "Captain America Pyjamas." Steve muttered.

"Of course." Evie agreed looking at her own. He had given Evie the same in a smaller size. The couple glanced at each other with another exasperated look and Evie went into the bathroom to get changed and do her teeth.

Steve did his next and when he came out he grinned at Evie in her Captain America pyjamas. "We should get down before he sends Butterfingers to drags us."

Evie laughed at that image and nodded letting Steve led her out of the room, she couldn't help but stare appreciatively at the one size too small pyjamas and wonder if Tony did that on purpose just for her. She wouldn't put it past him.

They all met in the extensively decorated common room, which they had gotten used to seeing sitting in every day. Evie and Steve walked into together to see an Iron Man PJ clad Tony and Pepper stood together by the tree, Tony looked overly excited grinning from ear to ear, Pepper looked exasperated but amused.

The others were sat on the floor around them, in PJ's of their Superhero. Natasha didn't look very happy in them, Clint seemed in-different, Bruce looked amused and Thor was grinning ear to ear. He didn't have Christmas on Asgard and hadn't understood it until it had been explained to him, Steve included telling him the basics about Christianity. Of course that took him a while to make sense of it, being a Demi-God himself. Steve had found a Bible and had shown him the Nativity. It was odd to see Thor reading the Bible (Thor had said that his he was on Asgard he hadn't actually read many books and "that was Loki's job whenever a book needed reading" and thus wasn't a very good reader, but he did enjoy reading when the story was good and got there in the end).

Steve and Evie sat down beside the cheerful Thor.

"Can we at least have some breakfast?" Clint was complaining to Tony.

"No. I let you make coffee. Isn't that enough?"

"At 6 in the morning? _No_."

"Man up!"

"Says the excited Christmas _Child_."

"Christmas time is best!" Tony argued back looking as if Clint had insulted his Iron Man suit. "Alright, I separated all the presents for everyone; open them one person at a time." Everyone stared at Tony for a moment before he sighed exasperated at their unimpressed reactions, "I'll start shall I?"

"Hold on," Thor and Clint spoke up at the same time before turning to look at each other and Clint gestured for Thor to go first, Thor stood up and picked up the biggest box, it wasn't wrapped, it was just simple cardboard and opened it up, pulling out 7 teardrop shaped crystals about the size of Thor's hand, all different colours. He handed them to each avenger (Putting it beside Tony knowing he didn't like to be handed things) and Evie and Pepper.

Tony had a red and gold stone, the colours swirling around each other - but the stone itself was dull and smooth, but rounded into a squashed sphere. He grinned at it, and ran a finger over the edge.

Bruce had a purple stone - it was smooth looking but when it landed in hand it felt smooth. It had large juts of crystal sticking out - like a city skyline. He ran his fingers over the edge of one piece that was sticking out - it felt sharp.

Clint had purple and black for his stone - the black was in speckles and large swipes, like it had burst through. It was semi-transparent and shiny, and almost flat.

Natasha had black and red - the colours merged into each other, making it difficult to find when one colour ended and another began. It was smooth but dull but shaped so it fit snugly into her palm - it felt warm to touch.

Steve's was red, blue and white - the colours of the American flag. (Steve later reckoned Tony had helped a little with the colours of it). The colours ripped through each other, all somehow fighting for dominance. The stone was a smoothly rounded and reminded him of the sort of pebble you found on a beach.

Pepper had an orange crystal. It was different shards of crystal pressed together in a small rectangle. It was smooth but had small chips on all sides where whatever had smoothed it had missed out where that was on purpose or not Pepper didn't know.

Evie had red and blue. It was angular - so the colours appeared to be one for each side but when tilted into light they all changed onto the other colour. It was smooth and transparent.

"Beautiful." Evie murmured.

"Wow, these are incredible, what are they?" Clint asked.

"It is similar to what you would know as a diamond. It is from the country side of Asgard, from a mine, called Irvinal. I can design them in colours of my choosing, I have one similar to yours man of iron."

"Awesome." Tony murmured inspecting his at every angle.

"They are almost indestructible, only my hammer and my father's staff can break them."

"Thank you Thor." Pepper smiled surprised at the beautiful gift.

Thor nodded before turning to Clint who did a similar thing getting them ornate bows, "They all have your names engraved on the side."

"Wow, thanks Clint." Steve looked at the side of his which had 'Steve Rodgers AKA Captain America' written there.

Clint shrugged looking quite embarrassed having thought this through so efficiently, he didn't want praise for something so simple, "Alright, Stark you can open the rest."

Everyone made noises of agreement as Tony sat down beside his pile of presents and ripped into them.

He opened the small pen shaped one, holding up a replica of the sonic screwdriver, "You managed to _finish_ it?!" Tony exclaimed staring at Bruce in wonder.

"I worked it out a few weeks ago and decided that'd be a great present. There are still a couple of faults - mainly I can't get it to work anything... _wood._" Tony laughed at the reference then pointed it at the elevator, laughing when it opened.

"It works!"

Evie moved straight to Tony's side looking more excited than Tony did (if that was even possible), "Can I try it?"

Tony nodded and handed it to Evie; she pointed it at door into the bathroom and it locked and then unlocked, "That is the most awesome thing _ever_!" Evie laughed. "Sorry Stark, you're not getting it back."

"I let you live here and you steal my stuff. Disgraceful Rae. Absolutely _disgraceful_." Tony took the sonic off her and grinned, "Thank you, Bruce!"

Bruce nodded with an amused smile still on his face, as Tony tucked the sonic in the pocket for his pyjama shirt and moved to the next present from Natasha, a toy Iron Man helmet. He muttered a thank you as he put it on his head. Unsurprisingly it didn't look strange to see him with just the helmet on.

He then picked up a mini box from Steve, "Steve if you've bought me a ring..." his voice was less audible from behind the helmet but they could easily hear the amusement in his voice.

Steve rolled his eyes, "Shut up and open it Stark." Steve muttered laughing.

Tony laughed and opened to box to find two small cufflinks with the American flag in them, he frowned in confusion at them, he took the helmet off to see them better. Steve stepped forward and took the left one off him turning it upside down, on the back had 2 letters engraved on each side, **RS** & **HS**, he then motioned for Tony to do the same on the right one which had **TS** on the back.

"R S - Robert Stark your Grandfather and H S – Howard Stark, were already done. I got the T S done for you, I know it could have been an A but Tony makes more sense since as far as I know, _nobody_ calls you Anthony. I left space for your kids. They must have gotten mixed up with all my stuff, which I found in storage."

"Wow, Steve. Thank you." Steve shrugged as Tony put them back in the box and reached for the next present after making sure the cufflinks were safe.

Tony laughed and then reached for the last one, from Evie. Plastic toy dinosaurs. Tony started laughing, "You didn't?"

"How could I not?" Evie laughed.

"I don't understand?" Thor asked.

"Uh, Firefly. We need to have an afternoon where we just watch Firefly, all of us."

"Agreed." Bruce nodded.

Tony grinned, "Alright, Bruce-y you next."

Bruce moved closer to his own pile, opening the largest one first from Natasha which turned out to be a giant Hulk teddy, and then he got a stress ball with mini hulks across it from Tony.

Steve got him blue-and-white porcelain tea cups from China that were extremely breakable but preserved for the moment, "Steve...wow thank you." Steve nodded, and gestured for Bruce to open the last one, which was a leather boundjournal from Evie.

"I figured since you go travelling quite a bit you might want to start documenting some of it." Evie shrugged suddenly self-conscious.

"Thank you Evie." Evie grinned as Bruce placed the journal onto his pile of things and Tony gestured for Clint to open his.

Clint laughed and immediately put on the Green Arrow hood from Tony, over his Hawkeye Pyjama's.

When he opened the _women's_ perfume and Winnie the Pooh teddy from Natasha he started laughing making everyone completely confused, "Inside joke." Natasha murmured in explanation. Clint grinned at her and Natasha allowed herself to grin back feeling more relaxed than ever and despite Tony making this the cheesiest Christmas ever, she was enjoying it. Clint pulled open the next present from Steve: a new quiver.

"Bruce and Tony helped me with it." Steve admitted but Clint shook his head pulling at the string to test it with a grin.

"Thanks Cap." Lastly Clint opened up the last present from Evie which was a model of Serenity. "Oh this is quite cool." He laughed as he placed it beside the rest.

Natasha took hers next, getting a plastic black widow spider from Tony which she actually _laughed_ at it making everyone start slightly at the unusual but nice sound. Natasha threw the toy spider at Tony who laughed and added it to the tree. She then opened up the gun shaped packet frowning at the simple slim black gun that fit perfectly in her hand.

"It has a flame thrower included." Bruce thought to tell her explaining who it was from, "I wouldn't practise in here if I were you."

"Thanks." Natasha grinned flipping the gun in her hand testing it before checking the safety was on and tucking it into her trousers.

She opened the next one from Steve grinning when she saw the knife sheath for her wrist along with a long jiggered dagger with flower like patterns around the sides and a dragon handle. It fit perfectly under her sleeve and around her wrist, "Oh this is gorgeous, thank you Steve."

"Only for you could we get a dagger and think it _gorgeous_." Tony muttered, Natasha pulled the dagger out gracefully and threw it towards Tony who scampered away - his legs spreading. She laughed and it dug into the floor between his outstretched legs, whilehe froze and started at it with extremely wide eyes before glaring at Natasha who just smirked standing up to pull the dagger out of the floor and replace it into the sheath. "That was close." Tony muttered.

"Yeah, lucky shot." Natasha smirked as everyone laughed.

Before anyone could say anything else Evie spoke up, "My present for you extends to Pepper as well. A girls day out at a spa, just us girls."

Both Pepper and Natasha smiled, "That sounds like fun." Natasha nodded, "I've never been to a spa."

"_Seriously_? Sooner the better then." Evie grinned.

Thor opened his next, frowning at what looked like his own hammer but miniaturised, "DIY." Tony explained grinning.

"Thank you man of Iron." Thor rolled his eyes before opening the next one, "Is this a...?"

"Pop-tart maker." Bruce confirmed grinning, "But...altered."

Thor nodded with a grin, before opening the label maker from Natasha and immediately labelled his DIY Hammer and then opened the bright orange beanie hat with an orange ball-ball on top from Steve. Thor grinned and immediately pulled it onto his head.

"How does it look?"

"Pretty cunning." Bruce grinned making Evie laughed.

"Man walks down the street in that hat; people know he's not afraid of anything." Tony added grinned. Lastly he got a long scarf from Evie.

Steve reached for his first present, laughing at the Captain America comic book from Tony; he remembered it being sold when he first started fighting in the war. "Found it in my dad's stuff." Tony explained and Steve just grinned.

He opened the next to find and old looking box with an even older journal from Bruce, he opened the box to find medals inside, he looked at them and slowly opened the journal before turning to look at Bruce with a shell-shocked face.

"Is this...I mean...who uh...?" Steve stammered.

"My great grandfathers." Bruce explained, "I went through all my stuff that was put in storage during my years of running. Found them and thought you'd appreciate it more than I would."

Evie moved closer to Steve's side to look at them and Steve picked up the war journal. It was obviously old and breakable, so Steve was extremely careful.

"Wow. Are you sure?" Bruce nodded, "Thank you Bruce."

Bruce shrugged, "It's nothing."

Steve carefully put them down before grabbing the next present from Natasha, a large square box. When he opened it, it was a large square wooden box; he lifted the lid off and gasped at what was inside. A typewriter - the keys looked a little worn and the whole thing looked like one his friend (who wanted to be a writer, who he later found out had published a few) had owned - so it was obviously an antique. "Tasha, where'd you find this?"

Natasha shrugged, "Bit of searching. JARVIS helped."

"Wow. Thank you."

Lastly he opened the present from Evie which was a simple gold cross on a gold chain. "Thank You Evie." he kissed her cheek as he put it on and tucked it under his shirt.

Evie then dug into hers. Tony got her a plastic Captain America Shield. Bruce got her:

"A napkin?" Evie rose her eyebrow in confusion at Bruce.

Bruce grinned, "Open it. Sorry it's a bit dirty."

"Uh..." Evie opened the napkin and almost dropped it. After a moment she slowly read it out, "Aim to misbehave Evie. Love Nathan Fillion AKA Captain Mal Reynolds." Evie swallowed staring at it for a moment before looking at Bruce, "_Bruce, Bruce, Bruce_! Is this, is this _actually_ him?"

"Yeah, I was out with Thor, Tony and Darcy a few weeks ago and saw him, tried to call you but you didn't answer so I got the autograph for you."

Evie squealed and climbed _over_ Steve to reach Bruce and pulled him into a tight hug. "_I have Mal Reynolds' Autograph_!" she squealed loudly making Tony cover his ears. Everyone else grinned and laughed.

Bruce laughed as he hugged Evie back, which was one thing that seemed to surprise him how casually Evie was to touch him. Most people were terrified of the Hulk, she was at first hesitant understandably but after only a few weeks she was more than happy to just casually hug him at random points.

Once they separated Evie was still grinning and she put the napkin down before reaching for the long stick like present from Natasha, she opened it and found a long brown sheath with a perfect simple looking medieval sword with a George Cross on the end.

"Whoa Tasha..."

"You said you can use a sword." Natasha shrugged in answer and Evie grinned moving to the other side of the room, everyone watched her and Evie held up the sword an begun to swing it back and forth, in a full circle for a few minutes before grinning. "Awesome!"

"After this, we are having a swordfight." Clint decided.

"You can use a sword?"

"Yep. Not as good as bow and arrow but my trainer was a swordsman so he taught me that as well."

Evie pointed the sword at him and grinned, "I'll hold you to that Barton." Clint chuckled as she sheathed the sword and re-joined them.

"Just don't kill each other." Tony chuckled as Evie opened a present from Steve, it was a gold chain with a simple small heart on the end, "It was my mothers." he explained carefully.

"Wow...thank you...can you?" Evie took her 'E' necklace off and turned around, Steve clipped the necklace together. "Thank You Steve." Steve shrugged.

Lastly Pepper opened her presents, from Tony; she got a pepper pot necklace. From Bruce she got a bag from Rome when he went a few weeks prior. From Natasha she got a beauty set.

"The lipstick is hallucinogenic, not for you but anyone that tries to kiss you."

"_Why_ did you get her _that_?" Tony exclaimed eyes wide and worried, making everyone laugh.

"Ah Tony, you may have been in mind when I got it." Natasha smirked leaning back against the side of the nearest sofa.

Pepper smirked and put the lipstick in her bra for safe keeping, "Thank you Natasha."

From Steve she got new gloves and the spa day from Evie.

The rest of the day went by almost too quickly, with the group laughing and relaxing. Even Natasha let her shield down for the day and smiled and laughed with them.

Evie and Clint had a sword fight in the training room, everyone watched them gasping when the two looked as if they were about to kill each other. It looked so practised even though it wasn't.

Evie Skyped all her roommates speaking on a group video chat for a few hours.

After that they attempted to cook Christmas dinner together but that just ended up in Pepper, Bruce,Steve and Clint throwing the others out the kitchen (Tony had somehow managed to spill flour all over the flour - they didn't even _need _flour).

They at the dinner together and without any mishaps or arguments, only when they were playing Charades and Clint thought Tony's impression of a wolf looked more like a polar bear and he guessed 'Golden Compass'.

Natasha felt more relaxed after letting her shield down, it didn't mean she completely trusted everyone but she trusted them more than she ever thought she would, she could relax and laugh with them, it was the most emotion she had shown in too many years.

They went to be early Boxing Day morning all with elevated moods feeling closer than they ever had before.

All they were waiting for was it to go wrong.


	10. The interesting chapter in the library

**AN: Made some small changes to earlier chapters if you fancy going back to check them out but none made a drastic effect on the story in general.**

It was a few days after New Year's when Thor announced that he was being summoned back to Asgard. He didn't say when he'd be back nor why he was going. A few days beforehand Clint had announced that he'd taken time off work and was going to meet up with a few people from the circus who he hadn't seen in a while.

It was a few days after than when Evie woke up and wandered into the elevator greeting Bruce tiredly. When they reached the common room, they were unsurprised to find Steve in the kitchen, but very surprised to find Tony lying asleep on the couch.

"Uh...what's Tony doing in here?" Bruce asked Steve who shrugged.

"He was there when I came back from my run."

"Before your run?"

"I didn't come in here."

Bruce and Evie sat down and took the toast from the plate buttering it and putting various jams on it, until Evie dropped the knife and the noise woke Tony. "Sorry." Evie apologised picking up her knife as Tony grunted in confusion and looked around before sighing and joining Evie to have some coffee. They waited until he finished his second mug before anyone spoke.

"Why did you sleep there?" Evie asked curiously.

"Uh...Pepper and I had an argument."

"...About?" Bruce asked curiously.

"I kissed a woman, well, _she_ kissed _me_ and Pepper caught us."

"Tony! You _kissed_ another woman?!" Evie exclaimed angrily.

"She kissed me!"

Evie put down her plate."It doesn't matter! If you let her kiss you then no wonder Pepper's angry!"

"I didn't _let_ anyone kiss me!"

"How is Pepper meant to know that? You snog enough people when you're drunk Stark."

"Only you guys! Well actually only the guys! I've never kissed Natasha or you."

"Yeah, because Natasha can kill you with a little finger!" She paused. "Actually, you _have_ kissed me." Steve glanced between them looking quite shocked at the new information.

"I have?" Tony frowned, trying to remember.

"On the 'Thank God the World Didn't End' party on the 22nd."

"Ah, sorry."

Evie chuckled and shook her head, "Doesn't matter," secretly she had enjoyed it - the kiss** - **but she'd never admit that out loud, nor would she _ever_ repeat it,especially as she thought of Tony as her friend nothing more. A few years ago kissing _Tony Stark_ was on the top of her list, but now? As good a kisser as Tony is, she would _much rather_ kiss Steve and try to avoid repeating that experience. "But that's not the point, alright? Just, it's probably not that Pepper doesn't trust you but it's a random person you kissed! Whereas when you kiss one of us she knows nothing will happen cause your drunk and she trusts us. But a stranger? Seriously Tony?"

"I didn't _want_ to kiss this woman though."

"Explain that to Pepper and give her a few days ok? Try not to kiss anyone when you get drunk. Not even Bruce, ok?"

Tony nodded, "Ok. I can do that. Sorry, Bruce-y, I know you'll miss it."

"Yeah..." Bruce muttered, sarcasm dripping off his voice, "I will miss it _so _much."

"You're very sarcastic in the morning you know that?"

"No? _Really_?"

"Or maybe you're just sarcastic in general."

"Getting warmer." Bruce smirked at his best friend who just sat, pondering.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Evie made her way to the library; the news about her had started to die down enough for Evie to be able to stay at work without being questioned over and over. It had been quite amusing, after the reporters found out that her and Pepper kissing had just been a joke and they were more wary with what they had put on their papers.

She still got the occasional annoying reporter coming into the library but in general the days were much calmer.

She looked about the library encase there was someone waiting for her help but she had tidied it yesterday and it was lunchtime (normally the quietest part of the day). She decided to check her Tumblr.

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
Attachment: Bemused looking Pepper with a grinning Tony.  
Thank you Evie!  
_I'm assuming you and Pepper talked then?_  
1023 Notes. [Jan 7, 2013]

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
Yep! Then had sex.  
_I realllly didn't need to know that Stark.  
_2168 Notes. [Jan 7, 2013]

Evie couldn't help but giggle at that when someone clearing there throat caught her attention; she looked up to see a man standing awkwardly in front of her. "Sorry about that." She blushed slightly, even though he couldn't see what was on her screen, "How can I help?"

"Um, hi -," The person speaking was a man with short, blonde hair that was shorter round the sides of his head than it was on the side, and stuck up a little at his fringe. He had a kind, round face - distinctly non distinctive. The sort you could overlook. He was well built - or, at least, he looked it from his arms, but his shoulders where broad. He was rather pale, but that just made his eyes stand out more somehow - they were almost-black. He was wearing a very Castiel type trench coat, a check blue shirt and black jeans, skinny jeans. "I'm new in town - could you show me where the Norse Mythology books are?" He spoke with a Californian accent.

"Uh, sure," Evie stood up and motioned for him to follow.

He grinned. He had a nice smile. "Thanks."

Evie showed him to the books. "We don't actually have that much on Norse Mythology, really, uh - more Greek."

"It's alright. I don't think I've read any of these."

Evie sat on a table nearby. "You sound like you're from California?"

He grinned. "Yeah - San Jose to be exact."

Something about him made her want to know more. Yes, he was very attractive, but something about his tone made it seem like you could ask him anything and it'd be fine. Like, somehow, you'd known them forever.

"Oh. Bet you miss the warmer weather. Warmer than New York I bet."

He laughed, "You're _really_ talking to me about the weather?"

Evie laughed and shrugged, "Why did you move away?" She asked - then her eyes widened. "If you don't want to tell me then, you know, it's fine, I, uh -"

He laughed. "It's fine! My father basically kicked me and my brother out after my brother trashed the house badly."

"...so why did he kick _you_ out if it was your brother?"

He shrugged and picked one of the books off the shelf. "Cause I didn't stop him." He grinned and stuck out his hand. "I'm Regalis, by the way."

Evie laughed. "I'm Evie! Nice to meet you." They shook hands and laughed. "Your name is unusual."

"Yeah. My mother told me it was Scandinavian or something but, to be honest, I think they just made up a word when they didn't know what to call me!"

Evie laughed and he grinned. "What's your brother's name?"

"Theodore." He picked out another book. "Much more normal than mine!"

"Does he live here in New York?"

"Uh...I'm not really sure. He travels far too much, really. He often doesn't stay in a place longer than three months, so I'm not sure where he is at the moment. He calls when he's in town. Right, can I take these out?"

"Sure, can I just take those?"

He handed them to her. "Your hands are freezing!" Evie blurted and Regalis chuckled.

"Yeah, I get that a lot. I'm also gonna need a library card."

"Right, yeah sorry. Sure, I'll sort that out for you."

Evie plonked herself down at the desk.

"Right, gonna need your name, address, phone number and date of birth."

"Uh, right, okay, Regalis Dievs," He spelt it out for her, then his address (an apartment not to far from her old one with Irene), his home phone and his date of birth (he was 28 years old).

"Awesome, here's your card, you can use it in any of New York state's libraries', and here are your books, they can also be returned anywhere. If you can't return them in time just call ahead or something. Due in three weeks."

"Thanks." As he left he winked and she giggled.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was a few days later when Evie a wandered into the nearby Café for coffee and a bear claw and surprised when she saw Regalis sat in her and Steve's usual booth reading one of the books he had taken out.

It wasn't unusual for Evie to see someone who came to her library outside of work. Occasionally she said hello, usually this was to the regulars and the people she had gotten into a conversation with.

But what compelled her to go over to him she didn't know.

"Hey, Regalis right?"

Regalis looked up at her looking quite surprised to see her stood beside him coffee in her gloved hand. "Oh, hay Evie. Wasn't expecting to see you here!" He stuck out his tongue. "Not complaining, though."

Evie grinned back and gestured to the seat opposite him, "Mind if I join you?"

Regalis shrugged and gestured to the seat, "It would be my pleasure."

Evie grinned and sat down pulling off her scarf and coat but kept her finger-less gloves on, sipping at her coffee, she looked him over for a moment and could easily see the carefully guarded expression in his eyes but the rest of his face showed relaxed enjoyment, "Enjoying the books?"

Regalis nodded, "Yes actually, there's a surprising amount of information that I never knew."

"Apparently a lot of it isn't true."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, you know the Avengers?" Regalis nodded knowingly, "Thor, he's like the real Thor. He's on Asgard at the moment, though. I've asked him quite a bit. When I asked what Loki's children are like Thor literally _choked_ on his food."

Regalis coughed and struggled to swallow the sip of coffee he had taken, but then took another sip trying to hide his surprise, "Oh?"

"Yeah." Evie nodded not seeming to notice his reaction, "So Loki's kids don't exist. At least not to Thor's knowledge. He said that, and I quote," she put on a English accent, "'My brother has never loved anyone before, at least not in _that_ way!'. It was quite a strange moment; Steve had to give him the himanic."

Regalis couldn't help but laugh at that. "How would Thor know, anyways? Maybe he had a sweetheart."

Evie shook her head. "Thor said that basically princes weren't _allowed_ to fall in love until they had either won their honour in battle or turned a certain age. Since Thor had done both he was allowed to fall in love with Jane but Loki was younger he hadn't done either."

"But he still could have had one."

Evie shrugged. "Apparently before Loki went crazy and started killing people they were pretty close."

"Didn't he find out about his true parentage?"

Evie nodded, "Something like that. Go ask Thor about it if you really want to know."

Regalis laughed. "So, are you close to the Avengers?"

Evie rose an eyebrow in question, "You don't read the newspaper then?"

"Hm? No, not very often. The newspapers lie loads."

"That's very true." Evie agreed, "Well me and Steve uh...Captain America are together. I live with them all now."

"Oh, and the news caught hold of that?"

"Well yeah. The Avengers are stupidly famous." Regalis nodding in understanding. "So uh... do you have a girlfriend? Or boyfriend? ...Or both?" Evie shrugged, "I don't judge."

Regalis shook his head an amused smiled on his face, "No."

"Has there ever been anyone?" Regalis narrow his eyes and Evie mental berated herself. "Sorry, I've know you what? 4 days. Seen you once for 5 minutes and I'm asking you such personal questions. Please feel free to shut me up anytime."

Regalis grinned slightly awkwardly but no less confidently, "It's alright Evie. I had a friend just like you in San Jose. So you're from New York?" Evie was immediately glad that Regalis asked the question, she was beginning to feel as if she was talking too many personal questions.

"Nope. Well I've lived here few years now. I lived most of my life in Portland."

"Why did you come here?"

"Uh...few reasons, story for another day I guess. But my closest friends lived here so I came to live with them. Well until I met Steve."

"What is it like living with the Avengers?" Regalis asked, keeping up the conversation.

Evie laughed. "Uh...more domestic than you'd think, Hawkeye and Widow go off to work every morning," Evie used their hero-names out of habit when talking to a stranger even though their real identities weren't a secret, "And the others go off quite often having their own lives. But at the same time there's never a dull moment in the tower." She grinned at Regalis, "And with that I should be getting back to the library. Nice to have a chat thought."

Regalis nodded, "See you soon?"

"I look forward to it." Evie grinned once more before leaving the café, she returned a second later sheepishly picking up her coat, Regalis laughed at her amused as she turned to leave again heading back to the library in good spirits.

Another few days later day Evie was sat in her library working quietly when Regalis walked in. "Hey!" Evie greeted him cheerfully.

"Evie, hey." He went straight to the desk and placed the books down.

"Finished already? That was quick."

Regalis shrugged, "I've had the time."

Evie grinned and picked up the small pile of books taking them back to the correct place unsurprised when Regalis followed her. "Do you have a job?"

"Artist. Just starting out really," He laughed. "I used to work for my dad as a landlord, helped keep the place in check but then Theo trashed the house, blah blah blah and now I'm trying to make a living as an artist with no portfolio."

"Huh. Are you good? At drawing, I mean."

"Very." Regalis grinned cockily and Evie laughed, then he shrugged. "I was the best in school, that's a fact. But in a school full of idiots that isn't saying much."

"You'll have to show me sometime. Your drawings, I mean."

"I'll keep that in mind." Regalis watched her for a few minutes, "Have you got a book here...The Magicians Nephew or something?"

Evie frowned for a second before recognition entered her eyes, "Yeah, that's the first in Narnia series, we have them all. They're brilliant, second shelf, fantasy section I'll be over in a sec. Just gonna sort out these." She gestured to the books on the Norse Gods.

**Hi everyone!  
****And here it is, my latest blog post. I'll be honest, not much has happened lately other than the media prank thing me and Pepper did (yes, that WAS a prank! Stop sending me anons about it!) So I think I'll just tell you about an interesting man I met in the library a few days ago.  
****Since he has a really unusual name, and I don't want him getting the same treating Irene, Croft and Sherly got, I'll just call him Will for this.  
****Anyway, he walks into my library and asks about Norse Mythology books. He's blonde, pale and charming. I'd say he was sexy, only I have an even sexier boyfriend so I won't.  
****He's from San Jose, California and had moved here because his brother trashed his dad's house so his dad kicked them both out for some stupid reason. His dad is a landlord and sounds like a bit of a jerk. Will has a brother, Theodore, who travels a lot.  
****Will is an artist but apparently doesn't have a portfolio. Just starting out.  
****So far as I can tell he's a bit of a loner. I'm probably being stupid, since he's far to charming and attractive to not but he doesn't have a girl/boyfriend. (I added the boy bit cause he could plausibly be gay).  
****Well, he's interesting and loves reading. So who knows, this could be the start of a strange friendship, although I'll have to introduce him to Irene first, she'll kill me if I have a friend that she doesn't know!  
****In other news, I'm changing my theme. I'm getting really bored of it, so expect change in a few hours!  
****Talk to y'all later, my amazing followers!  
****13****th**** January 2013**

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Throughout the next couples of weeks Regalis came to the library every couple of days and they found that they had a lot in common, so it was easy to make conversation.

It was just under two weeks after they met; they were resting by Evie's desk, talking about Narnia (Which he was almost finished) and the Harry Potter series. Apparently Regalis had only just read it a few weeks ago but definitely enjoyed it. "I liked Ron. He had a lot to live up to." But then he refused to expand on that statement to Evie's annoyance.

When the door opened and the one walking through it caught her eye, Evie stared at him grinning for a moment, "Hey Regalis, you can meet Steve!"

Regalis paused but didn't speak as Evie waved her boyfriend over kissing him lightly, "Hello," He greeted Regalis with a questioning eyebrow.

"Steve, this is Regalis, the guy I mentioned?"

"Oh yeah. Evie speaks highly of you. Pleasure to meet you." Steve held out his hand, after a

moment of hesitation Regalis shook it, smiling slightly.

"And you Captain. Would it be rude of me to ask for your autograph? A...friend of mine will probably yell at me if I didn't."

"Yeah course, uh..." Steve looked around from paper and pulled a pen out of his pocket. He'd taken to carrying one after being asked by various strangers asking for his autograph in the middle of the street. Evie handed him a piece of paper. Steve signed it and handed it to Regalis who smiled gratefully. "Are we still on for lunch?" Steve asked Evie curiously, she smiled and nodded.

"Regalis would you like to join us? I mean if that's ok Steve?"

Steve shrugged; he didn't mind he was more than willing to get to know Evie's friends even if that did interrupt their lunch date. But he was glad when Regalis shook his head. "Thank you but I've got some errands to run. I'll see you soon Evie, again pleasure to meet you, Captain." Regalis grinned at them both and left the library.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The same day, Bruce wandered into the shared lab, surprised to find it empty of the other scientist. He thought Tony would be here.

Shrugging it off deciding Tony might be out signing autographs or whatever he did when he wasn't: as Tony would say 'science-ing'. Bruce walked to his work bench and continued on his plans for the harness for the Hulk that he could wear under his clothes and (hopefully) would grow when he changed.

He pulled open the drawer for the sonic and frowned when it wasn't there, "JARVIS, where's the sonic?"

"Mrs Stark took it about an hour ago."

"Where is he?"

"In his own lab two floors above."

Bruce frowned. Since he had moved in almost 10 months ago he didn't think Tony had used his private lab, Bruce had forgotten Tony has one since they always worked together (so they could help each other and give advice). Shrugged it off deciding maybe Tony had something private that he wanted to work on. Bruce wandered into the elevator, "I presume you would like to go to Tony's private laboratory?" JARVIS asked.

"Please."

The elevator started moving stopping only a moment later, Bruce walked out of the elevator and heard the familiar, loud ACDC music, Bruce knocked on the door and the music was turned down, "Unless you're a vampire come in!" Tony called and Bruce chuckled and rolled his eyes as he pushed open the door.

"Bruce-y!" Tony exclaimed happily, "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Uh...do you have the sonic?"

"Yep, here." Tony pulled it out of his pocket and threw it over to Bruce who caught it easily.

"Thanks." Bruce pocketed it and turned to leave when an image over Tony's shoulder caught his eye, he looked over at it too see a screen showing a holographic image of what looked like an extremely large net and a DNA image, which Bruce easily recognised as his own. Along with a formula that they had been working on for some time that could calm the Hulk rather than just sedate him. "What are you working on?"

"Huh? Oh just something for the suit."

"Alright. Uh...have fun I guess." Bruce just stopped himself from stuttering and walked back to the door as Tony waved distractedly.

Bruce went back to the shared lab and continued working on the harness but he couldn't concentrate. That was _his_ DNA on the screen, the formula to put _him_ down. Tony hadn't enjoyed finding that formula but he had helped. So, what was Tony working on that involved his DNA and why wouldn't Tony tell him about it? He wouldn't mind whatever Tony was doing with his DNA as long as he's aware and have _some_ involvement.

It made him nervous not knowing.

Bruce shook his head, he must be wrong. It couldn't be his DNA - there was no reason for Tony to need it - but if there was there was no need for worry.

But he couldn't_ help _but worry.

Bruce found himself watching Tony for the next few days. Something was wrong - he didn't spend much time in the shared lab any more and whenever Bruce walked in he always saw his own DNA on the screens and the formula on the whiteboard.

Bruce hated to do it. He knew JARVIS would be watching and Tony would probably find out - but he needed to know. He didn't feel safe in the tower, so while Tony was out apparently at S.H.I.E.L.D, Bruce went to Tony's lab. "JARVIS, can you open Tony's latest project?"

"I am afraid you are unauthorised Doctor Banner. Apologies for the inconvenience."

Bruce cursed and looked around the lab mentally searching for a loophole. It scared him even more now that he was unauthorised. Tony had authorised him to absolutely _everything_. He had all but full control over everything in the tower except for JARVIS. At least, he _used_ to. "Is Pepper authorised?"

"Yes."

Bruce nodded, "Can you ask her to come here please?"

"Of course."

A few minutes later Pepper walked into the room and looked at Bruce curiously, "Hey Bruce, what's up?"

"Hi. Um...just a quick favour, I understand if you don't want to but uh...Tony's working on something and I know it's to do with me. I've seen my DNA strand on the screen and a formula that puts the Hulk down and I feel quite...concerned." Bruce admitted sheepishly, "It could be nothing, but the past couple of weeks something's seemed off."

"And you want me to spy into his stuff?"

Bruce nodded, "Just his latest project. I understand if you don't want to, you know, let him have his privacy, I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important."

"Why can't you see it?"

"Apparently I'm unauthorised to this folder."

"Ah." Pepper nodded, "I can see why you're concerned. JARVIS, bring up the last project of Tony's. Bruce don't look in case it's something that's meant to be a surprise for you."

Bruce obediently looked away waiting for Pepper's answer. It was a few seconds before Pepper spoke up, her voice shaking.

"Bruce, you uh...if this is what I think it is..."

Bruce frowned nervously turning to look at the screen. There was a picture of the DNA strand looking - at it closer, it was definitely his DNA. It was hard to be uncertain when his name and 'Hulk' was written beside it.

There was also missile and people, he read through the words and understood the equations. It looked as if Tony was back in the weapons business and this time it was worse than ever before. "God...is this a way to convert Gamma rays?" he murmured and Pepper nodded slowly.

"You know this stuff better than I do, but that's what it looks like."

"What the hell is he planning?"

"I don't know, but it doesn't look good."

Bruce nodded as Pepper scrolled through the page for a few minutes before closing it. "Come on, let's go wait for Tony. We need to ask him about this."

Pepper nodded in agreement going up to the living room, "JARVIS, when Tony gets home tell him to come to the common room."

"I will, Miss Potts."

It wasn't too long until Tony arrived home, landing on the balcony and machines moved to remove his suit, "Hullo," He greeted cheerfully, thenfrowning when he saw their body language - the way they were sat so close with arms crossed defensively. Bruce looked as nervous as he had when he first arrived at the tower refusing to believe how calm Tony was with the Hulk. "What's up?"

Bruce and Pepper stood up simultaneously, both crossing their arms as Tony rose an eyebrow. "We saw what you're working on."

"That's private stuff, guys." Tony complained looking quite angry, more than he probably should. Of course digging around his stuff isn't something he wants them to do but he was more than willing to do it to them and Tony wasn't usually a hypocrite. Plus Pepper and Bruce were the two he trusted the most out of everyone inside the tower, he let them _pass_ him items. The only other would be Rhodey who didn't live here.

"Yeah but I knew it was about me and you've been acting strangely so I was worried." Bruce admitted.

"Strangely how? I've been myself."

"No, you've been different. So we snooped." Pepper argued back, "And what you're doing, Tony, is plain _stupid_."

"No! Don't you get it! It's genius."

"Please, explain how it's a _genius_ idea then Stark?" Bruce snarled harshly, Tony and Pepper winced at the use of Tony's surname, showing how angry Bruce obviously is.

"You're our best asset Bruce, well the Hulk is. When we were fighting against Loki, the Hulk was the best fighter. More hulks equals lots of better fighters and we'll win against everyone."

"_No_, Tony!" Bruce yelled, looking angrier than Pepper or Tony had ever seen him without hulking but his eyes and skin were slowly ebbing into the dangerous green. "It's _stupid_. Yes, the Hulk was the best fighter but who said he couldn't have turned on you? Who says he _won't_ turn on you? He _has_ turned on you! Don't you remember when I lost control? Pepper was in a coma for a week! Yeah he listens to Steve and Clint but he doesn't have to! He can squish _any_ of you except maybe Thor quite easily. Like a bug! All that takes if for me to lose control. Just once at the wrong time. Do you know how hard it is to keep control? Right now Tony and am _so_ angry that you would even _think_ about doing this let alone _plan_ for it? He wants to come out and _rip_ you to shreds but I won't let him because _I can_ control it and stop him. Didn't you see what happened with the abomination? When Blonsky tried to become his own Hulk? People _died_ and Harlem was _destroyed_. And Blonsky didn't care. I do! Not only that Tony, but it _ruins_ people's lives. Yeah, I'm at a good point at the moment living here but all it takes is _one bad day_ and I've lost this, you, Pepper, _everyone_! Because I'll kill them! But before this, you were there. You were on the helicarrier. You _heard_ what I said. Nobodies mentioned it since, but I tried to _kill_ myself because of this _thing_ inside me! You were _there_ last time when I left here! You _stopped_ me from trying again! So Stark, don't you _dare_ do this to somebody else. I wouldn't wish it on my _mortal_ enemy." Bruce bellowed at Tony. When he finished, he blinked, though surprised it was _him _who said that - then stormed out with one last disgusted glare to Tony.

Both Tony and Pepper stood shell-shocked for a moment, Tony had told her about what Bruce had admitted on the Helicarrier but a second time? She wondered when? Was it here at the tower? Oh. When he left after putting her in a coma. It must have been. A very loud, Hulk roar snapped them out of it and Tony spoke up, "I'm sorry. I didn't think this idea would be so bad."

"Next time _think_ Tony." Pepper scoffed, "Delete everything you've worked out. Because if you follow this plan through thousands of people will die and it'll be on you and you alone." with that Pepper followed Bruce in storming off.


	11. Something Wrong

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
Have you spoken to Pepper or Bruce?  
"_You do know you can text me right? That thing called a cell? People use it quite often these days. But no, not since this morning. Why?_"_  
1023 Notes. [Jan 27, 2013]_

Message from: Go-Fondue-With-Evie  
Let me know if you do.  
"_Ok?_"_  
204 Notes. [Jan 27, 2013]_

Evie frowned at the computer and proceeded to text both Pepper and Bruce to ask what happened but neither of them replied. It must have been serious. Tony had never sounded so serious and short when on Tumblr.

She shook it off deciding to ask later but for now just enjoy the day. She looked up at the sound of the door opening, "Hey!" Regalis nodded in greeting as he walked towards her.

One of the strange things about the man was that he is calculating. You could always feel him thinking, assessing, figuring something out.

He was also attractive, but didn't seem to notice the looks he got from woman as he walked by. Either that or he ignored it.

There was something about him that demanded authority. He didn't need to shout or even raise his voice and at once the noisy rabble from the local elementary school scarpered off.

He never wanted thanks either. Or praise. He was happy with what he did, whatever that was. The man was so ridiculously private he could've been a serial murderer and no one would be the wiser.

Plus his skin was freezing. Evie asked him once if he wasa vampire and he just stared at her like she was crazy and stated that he doesn't sparkle in the sun, pushing Evie to give him a long rant about how vampires are not meant to sparkle and force him to read Dracula.

Regalis stopped and allowed his lips to twitch into a smile when he saw her. He seemed to do that a lot. He grazed his eyes over the entirety of her. "You're worried about something."

Now how the hell did he know that?

"Uhm, no I'm not-" Evie started.

"Yes you are. There are dark sleepless circles around your eyes, you're tapping your pen against the desk and you've been staring at your computer for the best of 10 minutes without moving. Plus you're eating dairy milk buttons, you're normally eating something less...chocolate-ly. All signs pointing to being worried about something. Has there been an argument at your home?"

"Calm down, Holmes. You've known me what, 3 weeks and you already know what sweets I eat depending on my mood?"

Regalis shrugged, "I'm observant. I also see that you're avoiding my question."

"No, no - it's nothing..." Had Regalis been Steve, he would've probed Evie for more information. Evie didn't mind that, she knew Steve was just concerned but it did get a bit annoying especially when she didn't want to talk about it. Instead, Regalis just gave her a sideways glance that clearly said 'I don't believe you.' and wandered off again to the Crime and Law section of the library.

There was, in fact, something wrong.

Evie had a crush on Regalis.

_How_ she would never know. She barely knew him but he had a mysterious air to him that attracted Evie to him. He was easy to talk to but he rarely said much about himself. The man could be mean or rude or just plain unco-operative, for all she knew he could be a crazy serial killer. But he was really very attractive, fun and easy to talk to. But she loved Steve.

Steve loves her!

How could she have a crush on him when she had the perfect man she did?

It just made her feel like a bitch.

Pushing the feeling away she made a silent promise to herself that she wouldn't do anything with this man no matter how big her crush got.

She pulled a chocolate button out of the bag badly hidden under her desk about to eat it when she caught Regalis' eye. He was smirking so she glared at him and put the chocolate back and turned to her computer ignoring his snort of laughter.

She got bored after a while and stood up, she called over James to work desk and went straight to Regalis. "So, are you going to tell me what's up?"

"The sky." Regalis sent her a very un-amused looked and Evie laughed. "No_p_e. Just thought I'd say hi and see what books you're taking out today. If you don't want me to-" She turned to walk laughing when she felt a hand grip her elbow and turned to see Regalis giving her a very strange look, one she couldn't decipher.

"No, stay. I was actually thinking about reading the Lord of the Rings or something."

"Have you seriously finished The Chronicles of Narnia already?" Regalis nodded, "All of them?" another nod. "Are you sure you work? Even I don't read that quickly and I work in a _library_."

Regalis laughed and winked, "Magic." Evie rolled her eyes. "I was actually before you sent me a death glare worthy of Od- Hades, going to ask if you wanted to go out for lunch?" Evie narrowed her eyes unsure of the context he was asking but he seemed to realise this, "Just as friends of course."

Evie smiled but shook her head, "Actually meeting Steve later. Sorry."

"Ah quite alright, another day?"

"Defo."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was getting late when she was sorting out a new shipment of books and decided that she should probably start to make her way home but she decided to finish this newest shipment first.

She allowed her thoughts to wander and they went straight to Regalis and Steve. She had a crush on Regalis but that was literally all it was, a _crush_. She loved Steve and there was no doubt on that. Evie felt annoyed at herself for even thinking about this, but she could help but like Regalis. He was a nice guy, flirty but then so were Tony and Clint but that didn't mean anything either.

Evie shook herself away from those thoughts and focused on her date earlier with Steve. He had turned up in his Captain America uniform - apparently he had gone to S.H.I.E.L.D with Natasha early in the morning (Explaining why she hadn't seen him). They and a few other agents had been shipped out to stop a threat and he had only just got back.

Evie had a rant at him how he needs medical attention but he promised her that he wasn't badly injured so she let him stay for the date as long as he promised to talk to Bruce if he needed to.

Evie jumped as a book sailed past her ear pulling her out of her deep thoughts, she spun around fighting position ready to see where it had come from but she saw nothing except shelves and shadows. She looked up at the shelf she was beside to see if it had fallen out - but she couldn't see any obvious gaps, plus the book had come in at the wrong angle.

Shrugging it off before her thoughts descended into things that didn't make sense because she'd been watching too much TV. She turned to pick up the book - 'The Last Black Cat' from the children's section - and sighed taking the book back to its rightful place. She was tired and really wanted to go home but preferred to sort through new shipments when the library was empty.

Evie looked around to see how it could have flown so far but she couldn't see anyone around, so instead, she flexed her fingers ready to protect herself if needed and went back to the last box of books sat by the desk.

She attempted to drag it to the horror section where it belonged but it seemed that the box was heavier than the last so she gave up with another sigh, dreaming about sitting back at home curled into Steve's side, watching as he drew on his sketchbook.

She bent down to pull a few of the books out of the box, took them towards the correct section, placed them in the correct spot but went back to get another few but found the box was gone.

"What the hell?" She frowned looking around for the box - but it was nowhere to be seen. She turned back to the horror section and cursed when she walked right into the box, staring down at it sat in the middle of the horror section. She frowned. "How the hell did this get _here_?" She asked out loud.

"Helps when you've got a strong sexy man to move the heavy book box."

Evie physically jumped a few inches into the air, spinning around with her fist's raised ready to fight, laughing in relief when she saw Clint leaning against a shelf opposite her with an easy grin on his carefully guarded face. "Clint!" she squealed stepping forward to hug him, he tensed at the sudden contact before relaxing into it and hugged Evie back.

"Missed me?"

"Much." Evie giggled stepping back, she had gotten quite close to Clint throughout the months she'd known him and hadn't realised how much she missed him until he'd returned. "How was your trip?"

"Great. Caught up with some old friends."

"When did you get back?"

"'bout 20 minutes ago, was dropped off in Central park and walked past the library, thought I'd pop in and say hi. Haven't actually seen this place yet. Is that a bloodstain on the floor?"

"Yeah, from the battle against Loki." Evie shrugged it off more than used to people asking, "I guess you fancied scaring me half to death?"

Clint smirked, "Not that hard, and you know you're fighting stance is shit. I'll have to teach you better than that. Especially if you were planning to walk home at this time of night in the middle of New York."

Evie was surprised at Clint's protective worried tone and just smiled, "Once it gets too late or cold I usually take a cab. But hey, I have no arguments with learning how to fight. Been meaning to ask for some lessons actually."

Clint offered out his arm, "Shall I escort you home m'lady?"

"I would like that very much." Evie grinned deciding to leave the books for tomorrow; she quickly grabbed her coat and scarf before taking his offered arm.

The tower wasn't very far so they didn't bother taking a cab and Evie found her herself feeling quite comfortable and definitely safe around Clint, she hadn't really spent much time alone with him before now. "So what's been going on at the tower while I've been away? Thor back yet?"

"Nope, still on Asgard. Nothing particularly interesting, except Tony almost getting stabbed by Tasha."

"Not much of a surprise, what happened?"

"He got drunk."

"Of course."

Evie giggled at Clint's deadpan tone, he grinned down at her. "So, you said your trip was good?"

Clint shrugged his broad shoulders, "Yeah. Lately with the Avengers is the most relaxed I've been in a while so I thought now would be as good time as ever to go see him."

"_Him_?"

Clint rolled his eyes and laughed at Evie's suggestive tone but allowed himself a secret smile that he knew Evie wouldn't be able to see in the dark street, "A very old friend of mine. Eden. We were very close in the circus."

"What does he do? In the circus I mean?"

"Varied. He's a mutant."

Evie's eyes widened and her footsteps faltered for just a second before continuing, Clint noticed this but didn't comment, "A mutant?" Evie asked curiously.

"You know, like the X-men?"

"I mean, you were good friends with one?"

Clint nodded, "Yeah, no were, I still am." he stopped and released Evie's arm turning to look at her with an heated gaze and a questioning look. "You're not one of those...'hate mutants' idiots are you?"

Evie shook her head fiercely, "No, no. I've got nothing against them. I just don't know many people who actually _trust_ the mutants."

Clint shrugged re-offering his arm which Evie took again, "Evie, I'm an assassin, so is Natasha. Bruce turns into a giant angry monster. We live with a God, a super solider and genius of all genius' – don't tell Stark I said that - You would expect any of us to _not_ trust mutants just because of the X-gene?"

"Well, when you say it that way." Evie smiled as the tower came into view. Home.

They went straight to the common area to find Natasha and Steve sat in their usual places on the dinner table, eating silently.

Clint put his bags down by the elevator as Natasha and Steve looked up at their entrance. "Clint." Natasha greeted cheerfully smiling at her partner, her eyes shining with glee to have the man she trusted the most back, especially when things have started to become shady. "How was your trip?"

"It was great. Saw Eden."

"Oh? How's he doing?"

"Yeah, he's good. Sends his love."

Natasha smiled at that. "I've been meaning to speak to him actually. When did you get back?"

"Not long ago. Stopped by to collect Evie."

"And scare the hell outta me." Evie glared at the slightly taller man who just smirked in return.

"What did he do?" Steve asked but he didn't sound very concerned, more amused as he collected two extra plates and started to serve them both food.

"I was actually being _helpful_ moving a heavy box for her." Clint answered innocently smiling gratefully as he dug into his food.

"Yeah, by throwing a book at me and then making the box disappear."

Clint's eyes widened drastically. "What? No. I didn't throw a book at you...?"

Evie's eyes widened along with his as her hand froze with the fork halfway to her mouth until she saw the amusement in Clint's eyes and realised he was joking. Scowling at him she put her fork down and flicked a pea at him. "Jerk."

"Bitch." Clint responded easily.

Natasha and Steve watched the two with fond amusement but before Evie could respond Clint continued, "So where's the threesome? Had a lovers spat?"

Natasha and Evie chuckled at Clint serious question and Steve rolled his eyes, "Probably." Natasha answered.

"Tony asked me earlier if I'd spoken to them both." Evie thought to tell them, "Neither are answering their phones."

"I heard them arguing." Steve added, "I couldn't tell what it was about but Bruce was angry."

"Did he hulk?"

"Yeah. I couldn't manage to calm him. Almost got squashed in the process." Evie noticed how casual Steve sounded about that but she chose not to comment on it. "But he was in his own floor so he didn't get out."

"It's normal for Tony and Pepper to argue like an old married couple but Tony and Bruce? Never." Clint murmured. "I mean, they argue about what they're making but it's never actually serious enough for it to actually be counted as an _argument_."

"'Wonder what happened." Evie agreed worriedly.

"Think one of them kissed the other while they were _sober_?" Clint asked seriously. "I mean we joke about it but..."

"It is a possibility." Natasha muttered just loud enough for them to hear. That shocked everyone. If Natasha thinks it's a possibility that usually means it is.

"That would be awkward, but why would it make Bruce angry? Bruce is smart enough to know that Tony's drunk kisses don't mean anything so Bruce wouldn't try anything himself." Steve tried logically and the others nodded in agreement, Steve did have a point.

"But you're making it as if _Bruce_ kissed Tony! What if it was _Tony_ that kissed Bruce? When he was sober?" Clint debated, "He'd get annoyed because he's confused and doesn't want to hurt Pepper. But then Pepper caught them and that would explain her disappearance and Tony's just embarrassed because he realised that Bruce doesn't feel the same or at least won't admit to it an-"

"No-one has kissed anyone." a voice spoke up making everyone jump and were pulled out of Clint's wide imagination to see Bruce stood just outside the dining area watching them with amusement in his eyes - but they couldn't help but notice that he held himself more timidly than he had in a long while. "Sorry Steve." He added, Steve shook his head shrugging it off.

Natasha was the first notice the duffle bag he held at his side before snapping up to Bruce's face, he looked nervous. "Where are you going Bruce? What happened?"

Everyone else then noticed the bag and frowned in confusion and concern. Bruce sat down on his usual place at the table and gave a brief explanation of what happened with Tony. "I don't trust myself around Tony at the moment and I don't want to hurt any of you," his eyes lingered on Natasha for a moment longer than necessary, "So I'm just gonna go away for a few days, call me if I'm needed."

"Bruce you don't have to go." Steve told him earnestly but Bruce shook his head.

"I just need a few days, a week maybe to calm down and not almost Hulk out every time I see Tony."

"Where are you going to go?"

Bruce shrugged, "Mexico, Cucuta, Canada, somewhere."

"Bruce, you don't have to go anywhere." Steve tried to argue but Bruce shook his head.

"I'd rather leave and calm down than hurt one of you. I'll be back though don't worry."

"Well, be careful. We're just a phone call away." Evie thought to remind him and Bruce smiled softly at her.

"When are you going?"

Bruce shrugged, "Now I guess."

"I get back, you leave. Sure, _whatever_." Clint muttered grinning to show he wasn't as annoyed as he sounded.

"Sorry." Bruce nodded at Clint but Clint just shook his head.

"We'll catch up when you're back bud."

Bruce stood up and allowed Evie to hug him, "Got warm clothes? I've heard it's cold in Canada this time of year." Bruce laughed and nodded, "Good." She pulled away from him and Steve patted him on the shoulder, "Just keep an eye on Tony please? I'm worried he's going through...midlife crisis or something."

"Wasn't that what building the Iron Man suit was for?" Clint asked with a grin making everyone laugh.

"We will." Natasha promised as Bruce nodded and walked to the elevator with the others watching him go worriedly.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"You're worried." a deep voice stated making Evie jump. She looked up to see Regalis watching her with a curious slightly concerned look.

Evie attempted to smile at him but it came out as more of a grimace and she shrugged, "I'm fine."

"We both know that I can easily read the signs of your distress I pointed out yesterday. Galaxy counters I see today." Regalis stared at Evie for a moment before continuing, "You're frowning, there are dark sleep-less circles around your eyes once more, you're tapping your pen against the desk and you've been staring at your computer for at least 20 minutes without moving and barely blinking. As before all signs pointing to being worried about something, this is two days in a row. As I asked yesterday, has there been an argument at home?" Evie couldn't help but smile at his obvious concern and just shrugged, this time Regalis did not stalk off, instead he thought on how to word his next question. "I am...here to talk about it, if you want?"

Evie shrugged again, "Well yesterday it's something else but uh...last night, Bruce left for a while 'cause he and Tony had a huge argument and Bruce doesn't want to Hulk out and hurt someone." Evie spilled almost immediately loving having someone to talk to that was completely un-bias - but she was careful not to tell him anything that the contract S.H.I.E.L.D had given her forbad her to saying.

"If he's afraid of hurting you, then leaving for a while is a good decision."

Evie nodded, "Yeah, but it's just...they've never argued so badly. Those two are like brothers. They bicker but never argue."

Regalis grimaced slightly at the mention of brothers but otherwise didn't react, "What did they argue over?"

"Uh...just Tony being the idiot nobody knew he was."

"Ah." Regalis didn't look as if he knew what to say to that. "Is there anything you'd like me to do?"

Evie smiled at his offer but shook her head, "Thanks but I don't think there's much you can do, except knocking some sense into Tony - but I don't think he'd appreciate that very much."

Regalis smirked as if enjoying a private joke before pulling a pack of cards out of his pocket. Evie grinned. Throughout the last few weeks Regalis would often take pleasure in performing tricks to Evie. She never would figure out how he did most of them, and he wasn't telling. "Do you want to play a game instead then?"

"You know I would." Evie stepped away from the desk, asking James to man the desk for a while and followed Regalis to the table hidden behind some shelves where they hopefully wouldn't be interrupted for a while. Regalis began to shuffle the cards with well-practised hands.

"What would you like to play first?"

"Spit?"

Regalis nodded in agreement, removed the jokers and split the deck in half setting out for the game.

They played for the next few hours only stopping for Evie to help others in the library, until Regalis needed to run some errands, Evie watched him go with a fond smile on her face and turned to organise some books.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When Tony found out Bruce had left for a few days, he barely reacted. He had frowned and asked where but then shrugged it off and went back to the roof where he's been working on something to do with the Stark Banner.

Which only led to worrying the rest of the team. Tony _always_ got on a plane to chase after Bruce.

At least that's what happened last time. After all moving in together at Stark Towers it was going well but they hadn't all relaxed together yet and it was a month in when Bruce first Hulked out, he ended up throwing Thor out the window and pushing Steve across the room, Clint was hospitalised for a week, Pepper was in a coma for longer. But nobody was too badly hurt but after Bruce changed back he felt so guilty that night he left in secret. The next morning they were all worried when he didn't join them for breakfast, Tony went to find him tell him to stop worrying they weren't angry or scared of him but found he'd gone.

Tony didn't waste a second getting on a plane to follow him and yell at him for leaving.

But not this time.

Pepper eventually told them what had happened and the team didn't know what to do. Natasha suggested telling S.H.I.E.L.D but the others asked her not to. Not until they knew more, S.H.I.E.L.D would just lock him up without talking to him and they couldn't let that happen, except Tony refused to talk to them, not even when they threatened to lock him up. To his credit however he did delete his plans for the hulks.

When Bruce returned a week later it wasn't much better. Tony barely left the lab and everyone was on edge wondering what he was going to do next.

Bruce returned in a better mood that he had left in but when he saw Tony, his mood dissipated.

"Tony," he greeted a questioning look on his face as he walked into the shared laboratory. Tony glanced up, nodded at Bruce and went straight back to his work. "What are you working on?"

"Nothing to do with you if that's what you're after." Tony answered shortly, "Why don't you ever work in your own lab? I mean I know you have enough equipment in there but you're always in here."

Bruce frowned, "Because I enjoy working with you Tony. Or at least I did until you started to become an ass. You know I thought you were better than this."

Tony just shrugged and Bruce left him to it.

It wasn't until Thor returned that things begun to make more sense.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

They were eating dinner together when they heard saw the dark clouds rolling in and heard the loud crash hit the roof. They all glanced at each other and out the window as rain came pouring down and a storm started, knowing it was most probably Thor. Pepper got up to make another plate of food, but they others got ready to fight just encase they were wrong.

A few moments later the elevators opened and Thor stormed in a dark look on his face. Not sure how to act with an angry Thor everyone watched him warily.  
He ignored everyone else storming towards Tony who sat at the head of the table and grabbed him by his neck lifting him out of his seat and slamming him against the wall.

Everyone gasped ready to attack. Tony grabbed Thors large wrist as his face started to go red but he managed to stay calm and just raise an eyebrow in question, his eyes darting around to the others expecting more of a fight for him. Truthfully they all had been wanting to beat the shit out of him for weeks.

"Thor! What the fuck are you doing?!" Clint demanded.

"This isn't Tony!" Thor growled.

"_What_?"

"I'm Tony!" (Not?) Tony yelled in-diligently struggling against Thor's grip, or he would have yelled if he had enough air in his lungs to do so. Thor released his grip just slightly as Tony started to go red from no air but still held hard enough for Tony to be trapped.

"No! I feel something is wrong. _Different_."

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Pepper yelled, her voice shaking.

"How about we all calm down and talk about this?" Bruce tried calmly. "Thor let him go."

Thor glanced around checking that everyone was ready and in a fighting stance before releasing Tony hesitantly. Pepper ran straight to help him stand as Tony breathed heavily, "Glorious oxygen!" he coughed. Thor stepped back and glared at Tony who just stared back looking extremely confused. "What did I do?" Tony asked gruffly. "I'm quite sure I'm me."

"That's what someone that isn't you would say." Clint thought to say.

Thor shook his head, "No. Something is not correct. There is a...darkness surrounding you."

"Now you sound like you're in a horror / sci-fi movie." Tony declared.

"You're a superhero, dear." Pepper muttered.

"So?"

Pepper rolled her eyes before looking Thor again who was now frowning and stepped closer to Tony who flinched. Ignoring the flinch Thor grabbed Tony's arm and pulled it towards his face. Everyone leant closer to see what he was looking at, frowning when Tony's veins were darker than usual.

"Ah." Thor muttered.

"What?" Tony asked worriedly, he wretched his arm from Thors grip and stared at it.

"You have been infected with a daemon." Thor stated.

"Demon?"

"Daemon. D.A.E.M.O.N." Thor spelt it. "It is a...being which infest your mind: They block your feeling of doing good and leave behind something that is pure evil, at least this one is. Your veins are the only physical clue to a daemon. Being of Asgard, I can detect them. I apologize Tony, I have not felt a Daemon in a few hundred years and could not tell the difference. They are extremely hard to come by."

Tony's eyes were wide, clearly confused, "I don't feel evil."

"It is impossible to do so. Have you been doing things everyone else sees as bad but you do not realise or care?"

Tony and Bruce glanced at each other before Tony nodded. "Please tell me you can get rid of it?"

Thor smiled gladly, "You are still aware enough to believe me and want to get rid of it."

Tony nodded eagerly, "I mean, if it stops everyone from getting angry at me for no reason then yeah, I'll try it I guess."

"And there lies the problem." Pepper murmured, "You think there's no reason but there is."

"That is the daemon." Thor nodded, "Still in the early stages. It is usually a few months, perhaps longer depending on the person to when there is nothing left except the daemon."

"So how do we get rid of it?" Bruce asked anxiously fiddling with a fork. He had taking to holding physical things to keep him grounded and not Hulk out.

"All daemons leave the body after they're out of their system it may take a few weeks, but for kiss daemons? They're the most powerful. They need a person - maybe more than one - who would be willing to die for them and then kiss them, while holding their hand – or some form of physical contact – within the midnight period on a New Moon. The more gone they are, the more people needed."

"The next new moon is in 3 days, on February 10th." JARVIS informed them.

"Well I'm screwed." Tony muttered, everyone turned to stare at him gobsmacked, "What?"

"Tony, I can't speak for everyone but I would die for you any day. I love you." Pepper told him seriously, Tony blinked shocked.

"Really?"

"Really." Pepper stepped forward and kissed him, the others were nodding behind them agreeing with her.

"What should we do until then?" Evie asked nervously watching Tony nervously.

"There is nothing we can do."

"Alright then, should we...sit down?" Pepper asked gesturing towards the seats.

"No, wait." Thor's deep voice spoke up making everyone pause, "I have more to say. I apologise the daemon distracted me."

"It's a reasonable distraction." Clint shrugged absent mindedly as he sat beside Tony and stared at Tony's arm.

"What's happened?" Natasha asked.

"The reason I was summoned by to Asgard is because my brother has escaped."

Pepper's grip tightened on Tony's arm.

Natasha's eyes widened in shock.

Steve put his hand protectively atop Evie's arm.

Evie frowned in confusion.

Bruce dropped the fork.

Clint's entire body froze.

Tony looked bored.

"The daemon is a definite sign that Loki has come to Midgard." Thor added. "As I said they are extremely hard to come by, there is a sorcerer on Kalur that may be able to conjure them."

"What are we going to do about it?" Clint demanded, a slight panic obvious in his voice which was understandable after his mind had been taken over by Loki and he had killed innocent people.

Agents.

His friends.

He didn't want his mind taken over again. He tried to hide his worry but they knew him well enough to see past the mask.

"We need to tell S.H.I.E.L.D and find him." Natasha stated. "I'll go start the jet."

Everyone stood up to follow but Natasha stopped them with one motion, "Sorry Stark, can't trust you at the moment. Evie, Pepper neither of you are trained for this."

"We can't leave them alone." Steve objected.

"He hasn't attacked yet, so I doubt he's going to right now." Evie tried to reason but Steve shook his head.

"I need you safe."

"We'll be fine, just for a few hours right? Just go. We'll keep an eye on Tony."

Steve glanced between Evie and Thor, Thor shrugged. "Tony is not too far gone. I do not believe he will hurt them until he is almost completely gone. He is still mentally fighting the daemon and he has nothing to fight for."

"What do you mean?"

Thor struggled to think on how to word it, "Daemons destroy your sense of good and bad - so a person could be daemonised and kill someone - but not know that it was bad, or they wouldn't care. If someone is daemonised, and is a friend of the person daemonising before being daemonised then they will be loyal to that person." Not everybody followed. "Say I asked the Captain to go to the roof but don't tell him why he will most probably go because of trust," Steve nodded in agreement at that, "This is the same thing, if Steve had a daemon inside and I asked him to kill someone and not say why he would again because of the trust and friendship. Sometimes it may take a while to get to the murder stage but with the right convincing and even sometimes love, it will happen. With the right kick a person may give fully into the daemon and will no longer be themselves."

"Ah." Everyone nodded in understanding letting it sink in.

"We should get going." Thor continued walking towards the door.

Steve kissed Evie and whispered for her to be careful and not hesitate to knock Tony out. Evie promised she can look after herself.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Fury was pissed.

"_How_, could _you_ _let_ him _escape_?!" he yelled at Thor, "You _assured_ me that you prisons were better than ours! They are more secure _especially_ for someone like _him_! And now you tell me he's _escaped_?!"

Thor nodded calmly, unsurprised by Fury's anger. "There is a traitor in Asgard who aided Loki in his escape." Thor explained.

"I don't care! I just care that the biggest criminal in the _verse_ has escaped and is possibly killing hundreds of _civilians_!"

"I am deeply sorry Fury, but yelling will not help now."

Fury sighed still glaring at Thor, "Where's Stark?"

Thor quickly explained the situation with the daemon and Fury sighed, "Great. An evil sorcerer is loose and one of our agents is under his control. Can this day get any better?"

"Not exactly _under_ his control," Thor added, "It depends on the type of daemon which has infected him."

"There are _different_ types of these things?"

"Yes. Kiss Daemons which I believe is what has Tony. He is under Loki's control but not fully as Tony does not trust Loki. It doesn't change how you feel but changes how you act; he will do what Loki wants but subconsciously and not to the best of his ability. Air Daemons which will make you violent. Water Daemons make you paranoid and do not trust anyone. Smoke Daemons which cause you trust people who before you did not trust."

"And I'm assuming the name is how they are transferred?"

"Yes."

"Great. And how do we detect them?"

"Only beings of Asgard can truly sense them. The only physical showing is veins being much more prominent than before. Depending on how long the person has been possessed."

"And Stark?"

"A month approximately."

"When he got kissed by a stranger." Bruce supplied.

In spite of the situation, Clint snorted causing everyone to turn around and look at him curiously, "Sorry. Just...does that mean, Loki kissed Tony?"

Everyone cringed at the thought except Fury who just frowned. "Did Stark not recognise him?"

"He hasn't mentioned anything." Steve offered. "Does the daemon take over immediately and stop him from wanting to say?"

Thor shook his head, "No, if Tony saw him then he would have told you. Loki is powerful. There are rituals which Loki can do to change his appearance. They aren't difficult to do but hard to maintain, so sometimes something small may slip, such as eyes or a few strands of hair."

"So what should we do next sir?" Natasha asked, not seeming to find the amusement in the situation as everyone else was.

"Try and find him." Fury sighed, "But right now there's nothing we can do, go back to the tower. Keep an eye out, watch Stark and follow him if he leaves as soon as you can destroy the daemon, _do it_. Thor, stay here we need your knowledge on the matter and you need to make sure nobody else has been daemonised or whatever it is."

"First I must go to Kalur. Where the Kiss daemons are created." Thor stated, "And then go inform my father of the new information I will return within the day."

Not wanting to leave and do nothing the others stared at Fury for another few moments before he just rose an eyebrow in question and made a 'shoo'ing' motion.

"See you soon bud." Clint spoke clamping a hand on Thor's shoulder as the taller man went in a different direction so that he could leave Midgard.


	12. Stupid Mistake

AN: Sorry this is late! Couldn't be beta'd yesterday and I forgot to post the un-beta'd version. This one is beta'd though don't worry!

Thor glanced around. Kalur; he hadn't been here for many years. There were fires, lava pools and potholes deeper than the length of the Empire State Building. Any humans would call this place hell for that's what it looked like. It was so hot that Thor felt like he would burn up any second, but he was a God. He wouldn't.

A man stood in front of him, about ten metres away. He was dressed in thin chainmail and boots. He had red eyes and almost pure white skin: a square jaw and prominent cheekbones.

A Kalulra.

They were the race known for their sorcery. They were known for making Daemons.

This man was the King, Na'qut.

"Two sons of Odin in one month?" Na'qut grinned. "Must be my lucky day. Except, of course, you ain't _really_ brothers, are you?"

Thor sighed. "So Loki _has_ been here?"

"Sure as hell he's been here. He's doin' well, by the way, y'know, after your dad locked him up."

Thor nodded, secretly feeling very glad for the information. "What did he ask for?"

Na'qut pulled a face. "I can't tell you that, kiddo."

Thor considered complaining about being called kiddo, but that wasn't the most pressing issue. "Why not?"

"Because," Na'qut started, before dropping his empty drink glass. It landed on the ground and instead of smashing it melted into a white smoke, "I've been paid for silence."

Thor was surprised. "Where did Loki get the items or Chet to pay you with?"

Na'qut shrugged. "Don't ask me! But he delivered so everything's fine and dandy."

Thor ground his teeth. Kalulra where difficult to deal with most the time - Na'qut more so. Na'qut had spent a lot of time on Earth, picking up their speech patterns and words.

"Tell me what my brother asked for _now_." Thor demanded.

Na'qut laughed. "Or what? You'll hit me with your hammer? Bring it." Thor didn't move. "Yeah, I know. You can't harm me without having the whole of the Kalur race on your ass asking for answers." Na'qut conjured up another drink, this time the liquid was red. "Not to mention your daddy."

Thor realised, after a seconds, that Na'qut was right. He couldn't harm their king. It would be suicide.

"What if I pay you an even higher price than Loki?"

Na'qut grinned. "Good luck with that, my friend. He paid a rather _high_ price."

"A Tempestas stone?"

"Done." Na'qut held out his hand, to shake on it.

Thor, again, didn't move. "I'm not shaking hands with you, Kalur."

"Ouch. _Racist_."

"Tell me what Loki asked for."

Na'qut grinned, pausing a second - for effect. "He asked for kiss daemons."

Thor's eyes slowly widened. He knew what this meant - it meant he was right.

"Thank you, son of Na'turkt. I will send the stone soon."

"You better had, man, or I'll be on your tail."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Evie and Pepper glanced at Tony who was calmly jotting down equations and trying to find an algorithm for something that neither Evie nor Pepper understood completely. Evie was throwing and catching a rubber ball, holding it as if it was protection some way, plus she had the sword Natasha had gotten her, beside her.

Pepper was spread out on the sofa staring out the window, it was night-time outside but New York was the city that never sleeps. She could see the rain splashing on the window and hear the relaxing sound of rain fusing with the normal noises of the city. The rain started pounding harder and suddenly there was a burst off lighting from the distance, Thor had obviously left the realm.

It was another 30 minutes of waiting for the others to either return home or send a message when finally they heard the jet landing on the roof and the Avengers came into the room but neither female relaxed without the sight of Thor.

"Thor gone to some strange planet where the daemon came from." Natasha explained. "Then I suspected probably he'll probably stay with S.H.I.E.L.D for the moment, since he's the only one that actually knows how to deal with the daemons."

"Tony," Clint called as he made himself a drink, only Bruce noticed the slight shaking in Clint's hands, "You snogged Loki."

Tony's eyes widened and looked disgusted at even the thought. "_When_?! Would I remember this?"

"When you got infected with the daemon. It's a kiss daemon and that's how it's transferred apparently." Bruce explained and included the basics of everything they had learnt.

"So what are we going to do?" Evie asked uneasily, "Are we going to be stuck indoors or what?"

Natasha shook her head, "There's no point. He's been on Earth for almost a month and nothing has happened. Go throughout your normal day, just be wary of everyone. We're issuing you both with a gun and a licence. Only use it if necessary, but it's better to be safe than sorry."

Evie looked as if she was about to protest but then changed her mind last second and just nodded.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Evie was nervous. The most dangerous man the Avengers had ever known is on Earth and apparently had been there for about a month. What if he just _walked_ into the library, he could kill her or kidnap her and he _might_, it was common knowledge that she lives with the Avengers, making her an easy target.

Her fingers flexed, she knows she can look after herself, to fight if needed. She was learning how to fight physically with Clint but against Loki? A _God_?

He'd be able to fight back with _anything_ she throws at him. Easily.

She couldn't help but think of the last battle, there were still blood stains on various places on the floor, she had cleaned up what she could but the council hadn't bothered getting new carpet as much as Evie complained.

She considered asking Tony to borrow some money to do it. Shaking that thought away she pulled out a book to move it into the correct place, her hands were shaking and she dropped it.

Silently scolding herself for her fear she bent down to pick it up, when she stood up there was a man right beside her. Evie yelped and jumped away from him, throwing the book at him at the same time.

His eyes widened in alarm as the book hit him in the chest and dropped to the floor. He stepped away from her but bent down to pick up the book holding it out as if in surrender. Evie blinked a few times before recognition filtered through her eyes and she took the book from him, "Sorry Regalis."

"Quite alright. What's wrong? Why are you so frightened?"

"Uh, just something that's happened at home." Evie wanted to tell him but had a feeling that telling him too much detail would breach the S.H.I.E.L.D contract.

"Has anyone hurt you?" Regalis looked genuinely concerned for her wellbeing.

Evie felt surprised but also comforted by his concern and shook her head, "No, no. Just Avenger business. Some creepy evil guy has escaped prison and is out there somewhere, thought that was you for a split second."

Regalis' lips twitched amusement filling his eyes and he nodded, "Well, I'm not...creepy or evil, at least I don't _think_ I am."

"Oh, you are creepy, just not in the same way." Evie said as she put the book away before turning to grin at Regalis to show that she was joking when he seemed to be pondering over it.

"Should I be concerned about this guy?"

"Nah, it'll be sorted soon. Thor's on it, sorting out Tony in a few days."

"What's happened to Tony?"

Evie's eyes widened slightly, "Uh...I probably shouldn't have said that. God, I sound like Hagrid uh, just ignore me?" Regalis rose a single eyebrow before nodding, "Have you read any of the Chaos Walking books?" Evie asked, to change the subject.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

February the 10th finally rolled around, the new moon was about to come out. Thor came back to the tower for that night so that he can confirm that it was successful.

Tony and Pepper sat silently in the common room holding hands with everyone around them; when Bruce put his hand on Tony's shoulder the mechanic looked up at his best friend with surprise. Bruce just shrugged. "I would."

Tony fell unconscious when midnight struck and Pepper immediately kissed his lips. Bruce apparently didn't need to, to his relief – Tony wasn't that far gone, but he still wanted to hold his hand for the extra power.

After asking why he wasn't waking up Thor assured them that it was normal and would wake up soon.

As Evie and Steve handed out the drinks everyone relaxed to wait for Tony to wake up, Tony groaned and slowly opened his bloodshot eyes. He stared at the ceiling for a moment in confusion before sitting up suddenly wincing in pain from the movement.

"_Shit_!" he yelled his eyes searching before finally finding Bruce's, "I am...fuck! I didn't mean to do that. I mean I knew what I was doing and that it was stupid and bad but I didn't _know_. Shit. Glad you found out quickly."

Tony and Bruce shared a glance both thinking of the same thing, last time Bruce left and convinced him to come back.

"Is that all you did?" Thor asked, his deep voice demanding an answer. Pulling both men out of their thoughts.

Tony thought for a moment before nodding, "Yeah. I mean I did a few experiments and the usual stuff, you can go through my notes and stuff if you'd like to double check. Probably would be a good idea just in case."

Bruce nodded and stood to retrieve a screen from the other side of the room to open Tony's files, which Tony quickly remembered to re-assign him permission for, "It'll probably take a day or so to go through it all. What's that you added to the Stark Banner Ray?"

Tony shrugged, "Just extra space to add anything we might need in the future. I think. We can check it out later."

Bruce nodded before relaxing back into the sofa resting the tablet on his legs, everyone followed suit.

"No more kissing strangers alright?" Pepper whispered to Tony as she sat down beside him. Tony grimaced in absolute disgust in memory of _who_ his kissed. "Especially Loki."

"I promise, for as long as I live, I will _never_ kiss Loki again. Although I didn't exactly plan to the first time. Although, how come she didn't look like Loki or that _he_ was a _she_?"

"Loki can change his appearance," Thor started. "In fact, the first time he did it was to change his gender. That was actually quite frightening – if it had been permanent."

"Why did he even want to change his gender?" Tony asked, grinning.

Thor laughed. "I don't know. My brother's mind works in mysterious ways, though I do not think it was because he wanted to be a woman."

"What was it like?" Clint asked.

"_The kiss_?!"

Clint chuckled and rolled his eyes, "No, being...possessed if you like."

"Uh, I knew what I was doing was bad and I should stop, but I didn't care. In some way I _wanted_ to do these things, hurt others. But really I didn't give a shit." Clint nodded at Tony's description, "What was it like for you? You never told us."

Clint and Natasha shared a look making it clear that Clint had told her, Natasha turned slightly barely noticeably, so that her leg was touching Clints and it seemed to give him comfort and strength to answer Tony, "I knew what I was doing but I just couldn't stop myself. It was like I was in a cage and someone else was piloting my body."

"You remember it all?"

"Every agent I killed."

"Stop that." Evie spoke up sensing the dark mood descending on them and didn't want it. "I don't know the full details but I know you didn't want to, nor mean to. So how about we just remember that it _worked_, Tony is _daemon-less_. Yeah Loki's out there but so what? Bring. It. On."

They couldn't help but grin at the confidence in Evie's light hearted tone and found themselves relaxing in her confidence, "Although I think we should continue our boxing lessons Rae." Clint spoke up and Evie nodded.

"Agreed."

"Not sure how much that'll help against Loki though." Clint warned.

"Maybe we should have boxing lessons with the Hulk?" Tony suggested with a teasing grin a Bruce who rolled his eyes in amusement, "Too soon?"

"Way too soon."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Irene Thompson," Irene answered her phone distractedly as she went through her diary; she had just finished with her last patient of the day, it was only 1 O'clock so she was checking out the next few days.

"**Hey little sis! I haven't seen you in **_**ages**_**. David's picking up Jenny from school so I was wondering if you're busy for lunch?"**

"Val! No actually, perfect timing, I've just finished for the day."

"**Great!"**

"I'll just finish up quickly and be over."

"**Awesome, do you know where Evie is? I've tried calling her but she's not picking up."**

"No idea, haven't seen her in a while."

Irene said a quick goodbye before closing her diary and made her way over to Valerie's, she greeted her older sister with a hug.

"I haven't seen you in way to long!" Valerie squealed as they hugged and led her through the living into the kitchen, both rooms had various kids toy's around the room.

"I know. What since before Christmas?"

"About then yeah. Tea?"

"Please."

"Sugar?"

"One." Val nodded and started making it, "So how are you and David doing? And little Jenny!"

"Yeah we're great. Dave got a promotion a few weeks ago!"

"Seriously? Congrates!" Irene grinned at her sister who she hadn't since in too long.

"Thanks." Val stirred at the tea and handed it to Irene leading her into the kitchen - after picking up a box of biscuits. "And yeah Jenny's doing well at school." she continued sitting down on the couch gesturing for Irene to do the same and she sat on the other end of the couch but turned to face Val.

"What grade is she in now?"

"6th. Just started middle school."

Irene's eyes widened, "So weird. I remember when she was a little baby."

Val laughed and ducked a biscuit in her tea, "I know, they grow up so fast. She talks about Sherlock a lot as well you know."

"Oh? Is he her music teacher then?"

"Yeah. Apparently he's the most favourite teacher in the entire school."

Irene laughed, "I'm not surprised actually, he's got that likeability factor."

Val nodded, "Still harbouring a crush then?"

Irene sighed and rolled her eyes dramatically, "Seriously?! When are you gonna let that go? No! That was in college and stopped after one stupid drunken kiss that felt like I was kissing my brother!"

Valarie grinned, "The same kiss that I still have a picture of and have been considering putting on facebook."

"Oh God. Val if you dare I'll...set the Avengers on you! And you know I can!"

"Seriously? The Avengers?"

"Yep. I'm authorised in the tower now." Irene sent Val a smug grin.

"What so you can just waltz inside? Can't anyone?"

"Nope. It's set for only authorised people can actually get inside." Irene wondered if she's allowed to talk about JARVIS, she decided not to for now just in case and ask someone later.

"Think you can get me authorised?"

"What so you can perv on them all?"

"Don't you?" Val grinned knowingly.

Irene rolled her eyes, "I'm not gonna complain when they walk in shirtless." she admitted, "But hey, who would?"

"Not me. So how often does that happen?"

"Not often enough. Although Tony does have a swimming pool and that's nice to join them."

Valerie laughed, "So which one do you want? Steve out of the question obviously – who I still need to meet properly, remind me to complain at Evie about that – and so is Tony and Thor. So Banner or Hawkeye is it?"

"Don't forget the Black Widow. She's quick sexy." Irene grinned and Val's eyes widened.

"Something you've been meaning to tell me sis?"

Irene winked and laughed, before hesitating, "Well actually, Bruce, he's uh...a great guy. But he doesn't want anything because he's the Hulk and is scared of hurting me."

"Has he said this?"

"No in so many words but he may as well. I understand and all but it's annoying know what I mean?"

"Completely." Val nodded suddenly looking serious, "He's right though. If he'll hurt you maybe he shouldn't get to close."

"He can hurt me just as friends; I'm not scared of him. While he's human he's the most gentle person I could know."

"Just with a temper to rival all other tempers."

"That he keeps in check, the moment he gets to angry he goes to his room." Val rose an eyebrow, "It's been Hulk proofed, so he can't break through onto other floors and hurt anyone."

"But if he didn't get there in time?"

"He does."

Val sighed, "Have you said anything to him?"

"Not yet. But I do want to." Irene shrugged deciding to change the subject before Val could say anything else, "Anyway how's your day been so far?"

The conversation flowed for a while after that only stopping to make more tea until the front door opened, a tall man with dark brown hair and kind dark eyes walked into with a young girl who looked to be about 10 or 11 and had her mother's blue eyes but lighter hair. She grinned when she saw Irene.

"Auntie Rene!" Jenny yelled barrelling into her, Irene barely managed to stay sitting up and hugged her back.

"Hey kiddo!" Irene picked her up and blew a raspberry on her cheek making her giggle; "How was school?"

"It was great!"

"Learn anything new?" Irene asked distracted for a second as she greeted David.

Jenny shrugged coat off and hanging it up, "Long division in Maths."

"Worst thing in the world." Irene muttered, "I think you'll have to teach me that."

Jenny giggled, "And the rumours are true."

"What rumours?" Val asked curiously, Jenny moved to sit next to her mum but put her legs over Irene's reminding Irene of herself.

"Well Uncle Sherlock and Miss Mahre were caught." Sherlock wasn't her really uncle but she had known him since she was a baby so he was like an uncle to her as was Mycroft and Evie was an auntie.

"Caught? What were you playing a game with him?"

"No, he was kissing Miss Mahre."

Irene blinked, "He was what?"

"We were outside for the next lesson but someone looked through the window on the door and Miss Mahre was there kissing Uncle Sherlock." Jenny grinned realising she was telling this to someone that didn't know, "It's been rumoured that they were boyfriend and girlfriend but we didn't actually know until now. The entire school knew by lunch time."

"Sherlock has..._What_?!"

"I take it you didn't know then." David commented with a raised eyebrow.

"No I did not! How dare he not tell me?!"

"Jealous?"

Irene sighed and glared at her brother in law, "Why does _everyone_ think I have a crush on Sherlock! He's my friend! He might as well be my other gay brother!"

"You have a gay brother?" David glanced between Val and Irene confused, "I did not know you have a brother?"

"No. Mycroft, Sherlock's brother. They're basically my brothers. Except Sherlock can't be gay because he has a girlfriend he did not tell me about, he's getting an earful tonight."

"An earful of what?" Jenny asked innocently, the three adults turned to her and started laughing, Jenny looked really confused.

"I mean I'm going to yell at him." Irene explained once she got her breath back.

"Oh." Jenny frowned, "Will he be annoyed that I told you?"

"Probably. Not at you, at himself for not telling you not to tell me."

"Oh." Jenny looked confused but nodded.

They talked for a while longer until Irene decided she needed to make her way home. She found Mycroft cooking and then knocked on Sherlock's bedroom door, "Come in," he called; she opened the door and found him sat by the desk marking papers, he was wearing his black rimmed reading glasses, he glanced around at her and smiled, "Hey Irene."

"You have a girlfriend?" she stated, Sherlock paused pulled his glasses off and put them next to the work.

"Oh God. You saw Jenny then?"

"Yeah, I went to see Val and Jenny came home. Explain."

Sherlock sighed knowing her couldn't play dumb, "Her names Natalie, she started working at the school since the new school year started, we got along fabulously and I asked her out a few weeks ago and here we are."

"But you where kissing _in a school! _Isn't there some law against that?"

"All the kids are awesome. Never report any of that stuff." Sherlock grinned. "And anyways, I'm far too liked to be thrown out for kissing someone!"

Irene stared. "Apparently you were full on making out." A lie.

Sherlock laughed. "Hardily!"

"Why haven't you told me?"

"You sound like Tony. I'm not allowed to keep it secret for a few weeks?"

Irene scowled, "Sure, but you have a girlfriend!"

"I do."

"You what?!" Mycroft's voice joined them; he poked his head through the door, "Sherlock?"

Sherlock rolled his eyes and repeated what he had told Irene. Mycroft laughed when he heard, then left, obviously less bothered than Irene.

"When are we going to meet her?" Irene demanded.

"Soon I guess." Sherlock sighed nervously. "Be nice."

"When are we ever not nice?" Mycroft yelled from the kitchen as Sherlock sighed heavily.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Evie winced as she leant across the desk to pick up her phone, her and Clint had spared for a few hours every day for a week to get her through the basics of most fighting techniques and now her entire body was _aching_.

"James' Street Library, New York. How can I help?"

**"Evie? It's Regalis."  
**

"Regalis! Hey! What's up?"

**"The Chaos Walking books are due today but I've become tied up and can't bring them in just yet."**

"Oh that's fine." Evie grinned even though he couldn't see her, "I'll make a note about it."

**"Thank you, but I think I'm going to be busy for the next few days. Literally, I'm going to have like three hours to myself that isn't sleeping. Would it be too much to ask for you to come over and collect them tonight? Sorry."**

"Nah, nothing's on. I'll pop round after work?"

**"Yeah. I'll be free. I'll see you then."  
**

"See ya."

Evie sent a quick text to Steve telling him she'll be home late before turning to help someone who was waiting beside the desk.

After work she grabbed the gun that she had been assigned and ordered to keep with her at all times, she checked the safety was on and tucked it in her jacket before walking to Regalis' apartment. She hadn't been there before but she knew the address, it wouldn't take too long to walk there so putting both her earphones in she was happy to walk to his apartment.

The weather was starting to warm up, any snow had long since melted so she didn't bother with a coat but quickly regretted it. She hoped spring would come sooner rather than later.

When she reached she looked at the tall building, it wasn't much different from most apartment buildings in New York, slightly shorter than some. "Number 12A." Evie mumbled to herself, there was no buzzer so she walked right into the building, taking the elevator up to the right floor and knocked on the door.

Regalis pulled it open slowly and grinned at her. His hair was damp looking - he'd obviously just had a shower.

"Would you like to come in for a drink?" Regalis asked. "Warm up a bit?"

Evie shrugged, "Sure. Thank you." Regalis stepped back allowing her space to step inside which she did so looking around curiously. The room wasn't very decorated or personalised with simple crème coloured walls and no pictures, there was only one coat hanging on the wall beside the door, Evie placed her coat beside his. It opened up straight into the living room which was large and simply decorated with a couch, a shelf of books, a fireplace with origami on the mantelpiece. There was no T.V but an easel in the corner, sitting on a white dustsheet that was splattered with paint, with blank canvases leaning against the wall. There was a half complete painting on the easel.

The kitchen connected into it with black granite sides with all the usual's in the kitchen and a single unwashed plate beside the sink. There was a corridor leading down to the left where Evie assumed was the bathroom and bedroom.

"What would you like? I can open a bottle of wine?" Regalis offered closing the door behind her.

"I don't mind." Evie shrugged as she walked over to the mantel piece to look at the origami and warm her hands by the fire. "Did you make this?"

Regalis chuckled. "Nope. My brother did."

"Oh, well tell him it's awesome."

"I already have." He grinned.

"You don't have a TV?"

Regalis shrugged, "I don't feel the need for one, I've never really watched much TV."

Evie nodded in understanding, she was the same preferred to watch films and occasionally watched a series online. Except for of course when a new series started. So really she didn't exactly understand but pretended she does so she didn't comment and sat down on the sofa.

Regalis pulled a bottle of red wine from a cabinet and poured two glasses, bringing the bottle as he sat back down beside Evie on the sofa. "Thank you." Evie took a sip of it and smiled as Regalis did the same.

Without even asking her, Regalis pulled a pack of cards seemingly out of nowhere and started to shuffle the pack, Evie chuckled taking a sip of her wine, "So, you said you've been busy today? Is your brother in town or something?" she asked conversationally as he shuffled the pack.

Regalis nodded, "He is but no. I've been out shopping today."

"Oh?"

Regalis shrugged not willing to give out any more information, "How was work?"

"Nothing special, quite a slow day actually. Spent most of it on Tumblr and reading."

Regalis nodded and took another sip of his wine, "What were you reading?"

"A Dog Named Areo. It's quite good. Have you ever had a pet?"

"I owned a horse."

"A _horse_?"

"Yes. My family had a few."

"Are you rich or something?"

Regalis chuckled, "Maybe."

"No wonder you sound posh for a Californian." Regalis laughed and Evie blushed unsure if she'd offended him "Sorry." Regalis shook his head a small amused smile on his face, "You - you never mention your family. Or friends." Evie continued and then blushed further unsure if she'd asked something that crossed the I'm-not-going-to-answer line. Regalis glanced at her, as though she was crazy.

"I generally don't have friends. Nor family. Only my brother. I haven't spoken to my parents since Dad kicked us out. Barely speak to my brother but I do on the occasion," He continued shuffling the pack. Evie felt a surge of sympathy for him. She knew Regalis was a hard man to like sometimes, but surely not _that_ hard? Regalis must have sensed the pity and sighed, but then his voice suddenly turned angry and strained. "When I was in...high school, I liked to..._trick_ people. Make them get hurt, emotionally and physically. To make up for what they did to me. My brother was the golden boy. I was a _runt_ of a child who couldn't spar to save his life. People never like to talk to someone who could be lying or deceiving. They always said I have a silver-tongue." He shuffled the pack throughout this, never taking his eyes off it.

Evie did not know what to say. She had known a boy, in math class, who was like that. He never talked to you, unless he was talked to or wanted to annoy someone. "Are...I...Did your teachers not help you?"

Regalis laughed quietly. It wasn't a real laugh, it didn't reach his eyes. "My teachers didn't care. They were too busy doting on my brother." He smiled, but again, it wasn't real. "One girl however, did take a fancy to me. I tricked her as often as I could and yet she _still_ talked to me. She was a close friend of my brothers."

"Well you have a friend now." Evie was confident on that fact and Regalis looked quite shocked at the certainty in her voice. She could see the pure un-concealed shock in his eyes before he hid it behind his cold mask of controlled indifference. She grabbed his hand to try and prove this to him, "On the subject of childhood, what is your earliest memory?" His shock morphed into alarmed at the sudden question.

He hesitated, taking a sip of his drink to give himself a few moments to think about it, "The stars. My brother and I would sit with our father on roof the estate and stare for hours. My father would tell us about all the different constellations and where the different galaxies are positioned. Freya. That was my favourite, the most beautiful constellation in the entire sky."

"Freya?" Evie all but whispered, enchanted by his words. "I've never heard of that constellation."

"That may not be the correct name but that's what my brother told me it is called, I love the name. But it's beautiful." Evie swallowed and nodded trying to imagine it; she loved watching the stars, "What's yours? Earliest memory I mean." Regalis asked as he began to hand out the cards.

"Christmas day." Evie sighed sadly as she took her half of the pack, "My parents were both drunk, it was actually the year before my father left us but my Aunt came round in the morning and took me back to her house and gave me a teddy bear which I still treasure to this day. And then she took me to her Church service. I ended up climbing the tree in the corner." Regalis couldn't stop himself from laughing at that image and Evie grinned along with him. "Luckily someone saw me before I got too high."

"Why did you do it?"

Evie shrugged, "It looked fun. And it was."

"Why am I not surprised?" Evie smiled sheepishly as Regalis' eyes shined in amusement.

They played cards for a while and chatted about various topics until Evie stood up, "Where's your bathroom?"

Regalis pointed down the corridor, "First door on the _right_."

"Thanks." Evie nodded and ambled down the corridor and into the bathroom. It was very simple with turquoise walls and one toothbrush by the sink. Once Evie was done she walked out and was about to re-join Regalis when she noticed the other door almost right opposite the bathroom, the door was closed piking her curiosity. She knew she shouldn't but she couldn't resist as she pushed the door open and looked around.

The room was just as simple as the rest of the flat except for drawings stuck onto the far wall and an extra-large mat on the floor. Evie walked slowly around the bed to look at them closer, there were various drawings of amazing things all over, places Evie didn't even think could _exist_ they were so beautiful.

She noticed a small notepad open on the bed with a drawing of her inside - she was sat at her desk at work staring at her computer grinning.

Evie rose an eyebrow, he had drawn her she felt like she should be alarmed but felt more surprised than worried, realising that there were probably more drawings inside, she picked up the notepad scanning through it. She didn't get very far when a cough caught her attention and Evie's head shot up guiltily to find Regalis stood in the doorway with his arms crossed watching her with amusement and anger in his eyes, "Uh...I was just..."

"Prying?"

"Uh...yeah I guess. Sorry." Regalis shook his head and stepped forward and took the notepad from her hands, he closed it and opened the side table draw placing the notepad inside before closing and locking it, "You're really good." Evie mumbled guiltily.

"Thank you. But you shouldn't have come into my bedroom without my permission."

Evie nodded. "I'm really sorry. I can go if you want?"

Regalis shook his head, "No, it's fine." He gestured to leave the bedroom and Evie followed quickly allowing him to close the door behind them.

"Are you angry?" Evie asked nervously, she really hoped she hadn't destroyed their ever growing friendship with one stupid decision.

"Yes." Regalis answered without missing a beat as they walked back into the living room, "But I understand you were curious. Shall we continue our game?"

Evie nodded sitting back down smiling gratefully as Regalis poured her another glass of wine, "You drew me?" she asked conversationally as he started to shuffle the deck again.

"Two days ago, you were very focused on your computer. You don't mind?"

"That you drew me?" Evie shrugged and shook her head, "I feel privileged actually that you drew me in the midst of all those amazing beautiful things."

"You deserve to be drawn." Regalis muttered without hesitation.

Evie blushed glancing up surprised to see Regalis so close to her, she could feel his breath on her face, his dark eyes bore into hers as they sat in complete silence except for his hands as they moved expertly shuffling the deck of cards.

Evie glanced down at his lips.

Evie knew she should move backward; she has Steve waiting at home.

It was Regalis who closed the gap, Evie's eyes closed as she felt a hand reaching to the back of her neck in an attempt to deepen the kiss. Evie did the same as she felt him pushing her back against the sofa and the movement brought her back to reality.

_Steve_.

She grabbed his shoulders and pushed him away which he did so quickly staring at her with his eyes wide in apparent shock and disbelief. "I'm sorry..." Evie mumbled.

"No, it's - I'm sorry, uh - its ok."

"I...I can't I uh - Steve..."

With that, Evie stood up and ran.

The door slammed: Evie had left. Regalis sat, hunched over, his breath unsteady. He could still feel her on his lips. He didn't know how to feel. This was the first time anyone had willingly kissed him.

But then, he looked different. He'd tried his hardest to change his personality, his everything. But somehow, even after the contact, he felt empty. Alone.

Why? How?

So many questions. Why did Evie kiss him? How could she like a monster like him? Did Evie really like him, or was it some cruel trick of the human kind?

The humans. They were always somehow _smaller_ than him, less important, but right _now_? Now they felt like a God: powerful and loving. How could he ever be loved by one as perfect as Evie?

Evie was, to him, exactly what a woman should be. After the initial shock of coming onto earth, the short skirts and shirts that hardily covered..._there_, he had been somehow relieved to find someone as modest as Evie.

He knew he wasn't being fair. You cannot judge a whole race by the few individuals that he had met first.

If everyone did judge a whole planet on one person, then whoever wanted to judge Asgard better not look at him. He was exactly what Asgardians where not supposed to be, he was the black sheep. He was the one who the family only spoke as 'the other one'.

He could cope, of course he could. He had been coping since the day he was stolen from the Frost Giants.

He stood up. He closed his eyes, and went to get himself a drink.

Evie, Evie, _Evie_.

Why, why, _why_?

_Evie, do you know what you are doing to me? Do you know the mess you are making me?_ Everything was so simple before. Why did she have to come along, and make everything a perfect mess?

Why did she have to know the Avengers? He wouldn't have given her a second glance if she hadn't said that, he would never had come back to the library except to return the books on Norse Mythology but he did and Evie entered his life in a way he never expected anyone to.

Regalis put the drink down and sighed. He blinked - once, twice. Then ambled over to the bedroom. He lifted up the rug, to reveal a circle with runes chalked onto the floor.

He slipped his t-shirt over his head, and flung it behind him onto the floor and then sat in the circle cross-legged. He breathed in, then out.

"_Mutare me retrorsum, mutare me retrorsum_," he muttered.

A sharp crack filled the silence. He closed his eyes, because they began to sting. His skin felt like it was being prodded with pins, but _everywhere_. There was a sharp pain in his head.

Then it stopped. He smiled, and brushed his tongue over his teeth. He rolled his shoulders, and without opening his eyes muttered, "_Operaretur me_." He stood up as he spoke it, and felt a sudden heavy weight drape over his shoulders.

He opened his eyes, and grinned.

He was Loki once more.


	13. Confessions and Daemons

Loki ran his hands through his hair, enjoying it being long again. He didn't like short hair.

It was nice not to have to concentrate on keeping his other form 24/7, in some ways it was easy by using the right spell but when he lost concentration for a split second his eyes would change colour, or sometimes the roots of his hair. But it would take a lot for that to happen.

He glanced in the mirror before sitting back down in the middle of the circle and closed his eyes, "_Deportaturum duplici, deportaturum duplici._" He repeated concentrating on exactly where he needed to go. He had gotten better at that, sending a duplicate of himself elsewhere to do business so that he didn't have to go far. The only trouble was that he was completely unaware of his own body when he did this.

That was one bright side to leaving Asgard; he could explore his powers at a deeper level.

He had found a means of teleportation but that often took a lot of his own power unless he had a link, such as a binding bracelet or an exact location powered up with an insane amount of energy (such as the Bifrost).

His eyes flickered open. The room was old fashioned, with a lamp dimly lighting one corner of the room, where sat an old man with a book. He smiled, but didn't look up.

"It's rude to enter without knocking."

"I did send you a telepathic message."

"Loki." He greeted.

"Erik." Erik smiled and placed a bookmark in the book. He gestured for Loki to sit down.

"What brings you here on this fine afternoon?"

Loki sat, and Erik held out a bottle of wine in offering, Loki shook his head, "No thank you. I was simply..." Loki faltered slightly; he needed to get away from Regalis for a while, from Evie, but he couldn't tell Erik something as weak as that. So he improvised. "Checking up on the plan. Everything going well, I trust?"

Erik sighed. "Indeed, Loki. The _Fraternité Paris_ have decided to create an alliance with us. As have the _Cynghrair Cymru_ mutants."

Loki smiled. "Good, good." He sighed. "I have one more destination to go to. Please excuse me." He smiled, stood up and closed his eyes. "_Deportaturum duplici!_"

There was the wind, then the drop. Then he opened his eyes. The first thing he felt was, of course, heat. Massive amounts of it. Any human would have burned to a crisp by now, but he was a God and immune to such things. Plus he wasn't _really_ there. He opened his eyes.

In front of him was a place that many may well describe as hell. There where fires, lava pools and potholes deeper than the length of the Empire State Building with strange fire-creatures that liked their meals burnt black.

A man stood in front of him, about ten metres away. He was dressed in thin chainmail and boots. He had red eyes and almost pure white skin: a square jaw and prominent cheekbones.

A Kalulra.

They were the race known for their sorcery. They were known for making Daemons.

"M'lord." The man said and grinned.

Loki rolled his eyes. "That is possibly the most polite you've been to me in the five years we've known each other, Na'qut."

"No harm in trying, baby. No harm in trying." He grinned again. Loki had always hated that grin. "Now then, what the hell brings you back so soon to such a fine place as Kalur?"

"You know why I'm here."

Na'qut grinned. "Kiss daemons again?"

"No."

"Sure? Y'know, I bet you just need those cause you like kissing people." Loki didn't reply. "Well I sure like kissing people."

"That's lovely, Na'qut. Anyway, it was not I who did the kissing."

"Not for Stark but you did daemon-kiss...?"

Loki refused to answer, "I'm here to ask for-"

"I know exactly what you want and the answer is no."

"No?"

"No." He clicked his fingers and a glass appeared in his hand. It was filled with a murky green liquid and he took a sip of it.

"And, why would the answer be no?"

Na'qut sighed. "Because it's damned well rude to go 'round asking people to do the impossible."

"It isn't impossible. Your father's father did it."

"Oh, sure, but he was the greatest sorcerer there ever was. Pretty hard to live up to that, y'know?" He grinned and downed the drink. "Pretty damned hard. But you'd know all about expectations, what with your brother n everything." He threw the now empty glass onto the floor, where it shattered on impact then collapsed into dust.

Loki clenched his jaw, then smiled. "Indeed. Now, I can offer you a Winterstone and a Rhotre Alts Stone, if you do this for me."

"I already told you, I can't summon up a _stupri_ _army_ of Daemons! We have trouble with two or three at a time!"

"I can help."

Na'qut sneered. "Like hell ya could."

"I can. I can channel my powers into you, then you can summon the daemons through the daemon alter. Use my blood to channel my powers."

"That thing hasn't worked in donkey's years!"

"And your father's father didn't use it... _donkey's years_ ago."

"Sure as hell he did. He's _looong_ gone."

Loki tried to stop himself screaming at the man. He knew he could do it, he was choosing to be awkward to annoy him.

"Listen - to - me!" Loki's voice was getting louder now. "I know you made an army for the Jotuns."

Na'qut stopped grinning. "How the hell'd you find out about that?"

"I have friends in high places."

"Huh."

"So, I'm going to offer you one last time: A Winterstone and a Rhotre Alts Stone for three hundred assorted Daemons."

Na'qut considered. "Throw in 300 Chet," the currency of the land, "and you got yourself a deal!"

"100."

"Ah, ah, ah! 250."

"150." Loki grimaced.

"200! Final offer."

Loki sighed. "Fine. And what do you want for your silence?"

"My silence?"

"I know Thor has been to see you. You told him that I wanted kiss-daemons despite what I gave you for silence."

"Oh yeah, big guy your brother threatened me with that big hammer of his."

Loki rolled his eyes, he knew that though it were probably true Na'qut owned an entire planet if Thor hurt him. Thor would be in trouble and he knew it. "What would..._protect_ you from my brothers threats?"

Na'qut considered, "Extra 100 chet _and_ a stone of a Wentorio."

"A _Wentorio_, that's near impossible."

"For a Princess?"

Loki sighed, "Anything else instead?"

"Without a Wentorio stone I'm afraid I might _accidently_ slip."

Loki sighed, "Fine. We can only make a batch at a time. I'll see you in a few days with the stones and money."

"Wait, you haven't got _any_ of it?"

"I will."

"But you don't have them _now_? Bloody hell, man. You got one week, or the deals off and you can kiss the daemons goodbye. We can only make a batch at a time though."

Loki rolled his eyes. "And I need you to help pull me through the teleport we made otherwise I might be too..." he waved his hands about slightly, "exhausted to give you any blood."

Na'qut rose an eyebrow but nodded, "Deal."

"Till the next time, Na'qut."

"See ya round, buddy."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Evie ran non-stop all the way back to her old flat. She could feel people staring at her as she ran but she didn't care. She ignored the cold wind making her face sting, and the rain when a downpour started. She made it to the apartment dropping her keys as she tried to fit them in the lock. Cursing loudly as he hands shook she bent down to pick them up but her hands were shaking too much, she blinked back her tears and lent back against the door.

Steve was never going to forgive her.

Evie fell backwards as the door opened behind her and her head landed beside Sherlock's socked feet. She opened her eyes and looked up to see Sherlock staring down at her with a concerned expression, "Evie? What's wrong?"

Evie shook her head and stood up pushing past Sherlock running into her bedroom locking the door and curling up on the bed.

How could she do that to Steve? The moral, selfless, incredibly _sweet_ and _remarkable_ man?

Evie felt like an absolute _bitch_ as tears of regret and anger travelled down her cheeks.

She didn't have to tell him did she? But she couldn't not.

She couldn't _lie_ to him.

It was just a kiss. Evie knew she was over reacting. It was just a simple kiss it meant nothing.

But she liked it.

That was the problem. She liked it and wanted to kiss him again, wanted more than just a kiss but she couldn't.

She loves Steve.

A loud knock interrupted her thoughts and she glared at the door like it was knocking on itself.

"Evie?" Irene spoke carefully, "You ok?" Evie sighed as she got up to unlock the door, Irene walked in, Evie locked it after her but knew that Mycroft and Sherlock would try and listen in anyway. Irene sat down on the bed beside her, eyes concerned and worried as she stared at Evie questionably. "Did something happen at home?"

"I never officially moved out." Evie stated and Irene rose an eyebrow aware that Evie was changing the subject.

"Yeah, but Tony did just take all your stuff to the tower so we kinda assumed you'd moved out. Now what happened?"

Evie swallowed avoiding Irene's eyes, "I kissed someone else."

Irene's eyes widened and she gasped, "_What? Why_?!"

"I don't know. I didn't mean to. He's just someone else I met at the library and he's funny and charming, but I love Steve. I pulled away quickly and left I couldn't-"

"Evie, stop." Irene quickly stopped her before Evie got into a full ramble, "Are you going to tell Steve?"

"I don't know. Should I?"

"Well you shouldn't lie, that's for sure."

Evie rubbed her face, trying to rub away the tears. "I don't know what to do."

"Well you should definitely tell Steve. He'll forgive you."

"How do you know?"

"Hey, I'm the physiatrist, I'll ask the questions."

Evie rolled her eyes, "Seriously Rene-y. Will he?"

"It was just one kiss, it's nothing. You've snogged Tony before right?"

"He snogged me while drunk yes."

"And I know for a fact you've kissed most of the Avengers under the mistletoe."

"Under the Mistletoe Rene. _Mistletoe_."

"Well done. And Steve didn't care,"

"Well yeah, he had to kiss Clint under the mistletoe so..."

Irene snorted at that, "So as long as you don't have feelings for this guy it's fine." Evie didn't speak and dropped her gaze. "Oh God. Evie please tell me you don't have feelings for this guy?"

"I..."

"No. Evie!" Irene sighed, "Never told a patient this before but don't answer me. I know you well enough just...don't you _dare_ lose Steve alright? He's the best guy you or _anyone_ will every find, you'll regret it for the rest of your life."

"I know...your right. I'm sorry."

Irene shook her head, "Don't apologise to me. You know where I am if you want to talk. Want a lift back to the tower?"

"No, it's fine. I need a walk, clear my thoughts before I get there."

"Alright. Grab an umbrella, it's raining and just...do the right thing ok? I know I joke about a lot of things but you've found a man...that is perfect. I haven't seen you so happy since Jacob," Evie gulped at Jacobs name and Irene sent her an apologetic look, "But it's true. When you came home after that first proper date with Steve, I felt like I was back in College and Jacob had just told you he loves you for the first time. When he died you were in a rut, you didn't even realise it. But Steve pulled you out of it, don't lose him." Irene pulled her into a tight hug and Evie felt tears spring to her eyes, Irene was right, when she went out with Steve and he made her laugh she felt like she hadn't laughed like that in way too long. Irene pulled away and kissed her cheek, "See you later sweetie."

Evie wasn't surprised to find Mycroft and Sherlock stood outside the door staring at her anxiously, she just hugged them both silently before leaving the apartment. She didn't go straight home, instead she just walked aimlessly for the next few hours, going past the library and the café that they had their first date, El Grillio, their first proper dinner date.

Sighing Evie had to go home, she knew Steve would forgive her. It was just one small kiss and it wouldn't happen again.

But that didn't mean Evie didn't want it to.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Evie walked hesitantly into the tower, it was getting quite late but she knew most of the team would still be awake just talking in the common room but Evie didn't feel like talking just yet so she went straight for her and Steve's floor sitting down on the sofa waiting nervously.

She didn't have to wait long, Steve walked in looking concerned, "JARVIS told me you were here and seemed upset." Evie smiled softly, it probably sounded strange to anyone else but it was possible for an AI to be concerned. "So, what's wrong?" he asked as he sat down beside her.

"I love you." Evie whispered.

"I love you too." Steve replied without hesitation. "Now what's wrong? Are you ok?"

She slowly shook her head, "No. I'm not." she whispered, tears threatening to overspill.

Steve frowned in worry, lightly reaching to touch Evies chin until she looked up at him. Once she was looking at him he moved his hands to grip her that were fiddling in her lap nervously. "What's wrong? You can tell me Evelyn? What's happened?"

Evie swallowed again nervously looking into his sincere worried eyes for a minute before looking down at her hands where his strong, protective hands gripped them, "I kissed someone else." Steve's hand immediately left her hands and moved into his own lap, Evie started fiddling with the bottom of her top as she stared at his hands before continuing, "You know I mentioned a Regalis before? Well I went to his place to collect a book, and he invited me in for a drink, and it just happened! I left immediately afterwards nothing else happened! I'm so sorry! I've felt so guilty. It won't happen again Steve I promise. I love you and I'm sorry." Evie had tears streaming down her cheeks and she was staring down at her hands fiddling in her lap, "I understand if you want me to go. I love you though. I'm so sorry."

Steve reached forward taking her hands into one of his large hands and using the other to wipe away her tears with his thumb.

Evie looked at him in astonishment.

"I'm not going to deny that I'm angry." Steve spoke softly, "Because I am. But I love you Evie. Is this going to happen again?"

Evie shook her head, "No. _Never_. I promise."

"Then I forgive you ok?"

Evie's eyes widened surprised, he just, forgives her? Just like that?

Steve lent forward and pressed a soft kiss against her forehead and then her lips.

"I love you Steve." Evie whispered again.

"I love you too Evelyn." Steve smiled back pulling her in for a hug as she cried into his shoulder, so relieved that he had forgiven her.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The next morning when he woke up still on the sofa with Evie laying against his chest fast asleep, he watched her for a few minutes, she obviously felt really guilty over the kiss and he did feel angry that she would do that, but it was just a kiss, he believed her when she said that it wouldn't happen again and he hoped to God that nothing else happened. He couldn't bare it if Evie left him for someone else.

Someone safe who didn't get kidnapped or disappear for days on end and return looking like he'd returned from war.

He untangled himself from Evie and got changed to go for his run he did as he always did but stayed out later. He didn't know what he was meant to say to Evie. He stopped to chat with Beth and she was obviously concerned for him but he promised he's ok. He returned to find Bruce making breakfast.

"Morning." Bruce greeted with a yawn.

"Morning, you didn't have to do that." He gestured to the breakfast.

Bruce shrugged, "You're always making breakfast, it'll be a nice change for you. Don't worry, I won't poison you." Steve smiled but it didn't reach his eyes, "What's wrong, Steve?"

"Hmm?"

Bruce shrugged, "You look...like something's bothering you."

Steve shrugged and shook his head, he wasn't sure if he wanted to tell anyone but he wanted to get it off his chest and Bruce was probably the easiest person to talk to out of all the Avengers. He looked up into Bruce's tired but genuinely concerned eyes and found himself just talking. "Last night apparently Evie kissed someone else but it's okay because she promised it wouldn't happen again and I know she won't because I love her and she can't because she can't leave me, Bruce, and-"

Bruce stopped Steve, whose eyes where glittering and his face red. If he didn't stop he might've cried, and for Steve - that would be something. "She kissed someone else?" Bruce had always thought himself a good judge character. Sometimes just the way someone's eyes darted he could tell he shouldn't bother with them – in fact, his judge of character was why he and Tony ended up such good friends.

Steve nodded mutely.

"But she loves you," He said, though it would change anything. "Do you forgive her?"

He nodded again. "I love her, I couldn't not. She promised it wouldn't happen again."

Bruce nodded slowly. Evie could often get ahead of herself and make silly decisions, though none ever as big as this. He rubbed his eyes, tired.

The elevator doors opened and Evie walked in with a nervous, "Hay."

"Hey." Steve replied.

"Morning." Bruce greeted her carefully, as he picked up his own fruit salad, "I'll leave you two alone shall I?" He smiled and left the room.

Evie moved to sit beside Steve who lent forward to kiss her, Evie smiled and lent into the kiss.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Loki dropped the stones and money in front of Na'qut; he found it easier than he had expected to get all the needed stones. Na'qut grinned, "Slave!" Another Kalulra ran towards them dropping to his knees in front of Na'qut, "Count the Chet. Check the stones."

"At once my lord." The Kalulra started doing as he was told and Na'qut stood up and stepped over the slave rather than around him making Loki roll his eyes.

"So, are we doing this now?"

Na'qut smirked and clicked his fingers and between them appeared a large stone chalice with red diamond-like stones around the edges: the Gotdarm Chalice used for daemon summoning. On the side of it sat a long, sharp and serrated knife; the handle was as long as the blade, golden and glowing, it had the same red diamond like stone on the hilt, it fit perfectly in Na'qut's hand.

"S-s-sire." A voice spoke out; Na'qut glanced down at the slave, "There is a Winterstone, Rhotre Alts Stone, a stone of Wentorio plus 300 Chet."

"Perfect. Leave." The slave bowed his head once more before rushing off and Na'qut turned to Loki with a grin.

"Slaves?" Loki rose an eyebrow.

"The entire realm is my slave. I'm the king; I can do whatever I want." Loki immediately was reminded of that film that Evie forced him to watch a few weeks ago with cartoon lions that sung. "So, have you been saving up your blood?"

"I haven't bled out lately if that's what you mean."

"Good," Naqut held out his hand and Loki rolled up his sleeve, removed the wrist guard and held out his arm. Na'qut took it in his firm grip. His hand felt like he'd spent too long in the bath but then ate golden syrup with his hands afterwards. Loki visibly grimaced at that thought.

As Na'qut dragged the knife across Loki's wrist, he didn't even wince, as painful Na'qut tried to make it.

He grinned. "Huh, you're pretty good at this!" Blood slowly started pooling in the Gotdarm chalice.

Loki sighed irritably. "Do you honestly need all this blood for just _one_ batch?"

"Yes." He took the chalice from the stand and poured it into a whirlpool of swampy water. "You know that!"

"And you realise these transfer onto my other body?"

It was an irritable part of the magic, but it unfortunately used up a large amount of his energy to actually heal the cuts so he didn't bother. They would heal quickly but being of dark magic they will leave a scar. The new skin - of his new body - was just changed and stretched to new. This actually made the cuts bigger and more painful (though he would never admit it to Na'qut).

Just taking the trip to a different realm was exhausting, without Na'qut pulling him through it would have been even harder. Loki knew he will be exhausted when he arrived back at Midgard, he wouldn't be able to change he body for a few days so he'll have to avoid letting anyone in and hope Evie will be avoiding him.

Hopefully next time it'll be less exhausting.

"Yeah, but it's hardily my fault you can't be assed to heal them."

Loki made a 'Ugh' noise quietly.

Na'qut started chanting, in the old language of the Kalulra. It was a language long since dead, but still bound Kalur magic together.

"Chaquant pofromum g't, palat Kalurru. Nefura furrla som'ut." _The blood of a god, bound by native Kalur. Summon the daemons._

Loki had become fluent in Old Kaluri when he'd first started sorcery. It was difficult: often one Kalulra word meant more than one word in his language. 'Pofrom' meant 'Blood of' but with 'um' on the end it meant 'blood of a god'. It was this reason that over a thousand years ago an intelligent man (who happened to be cousins with the man who first discovered and took advantage of daemons) decided he had had enough with the language, and created a new one. This was instantly taken up by the people and Old Kaluri became exactly that: Old.

Loki rubbed his wrist. It was beginning to throb slightly.

Na'qut grinned, then dipped his hand into a lava pool nearby. It didn't hurt him one bit. He scooped out some lava, then motioned for Loki to hold out his hands.

"G'oret." He said. _Binding_.

He did so, and the lava was poured onto his hands.

The pain was excruciating. He grunted, strained. The pain was killing him.

Not literally, of course.

Before they had even started Na'qut had cast a simple protection spell over Loki, but that simply stopped long term damage. It didn't stop half of the pain.

He knew that there would be no marks on his hands, apart from maybe a small amount of burns for a while. He blinked back tears silently and let out a shaky laugh. "Halfway there." he muttered.

Na'qut grinned, knowing how much it would be hurting Loki (and secretly admired him for his strength, but of course wouldn't tell him that). "Yep." He held the knife that had cut Loki and dipped it into the lava. The blade did not melt. "Now, pour it into the whirlpool."

Loki took a step, and glanced into the whirlpool.

Since the addition of his blood, it had turned into a softly glowing gold mixture. He poured the lava in wincing as he poured it.

The whirlpool suddenly _stopped_ being a whirlpool. It came to an abrupt halt - then exploded. Both men were thrown back. Loki curled up into a ball, his hands over his ears but Na'qut laughed manically and spread himself out, so that he was larger. He always had been rather idiotic in the sense that he had little self-preservation.

Chunks of slowly cooling lava were thrown up into the air. Golden spikes of lightning lit up the ground - but there was no electricity in them. It simply heated up the ground. There was a loud hiss - then a noise almost deafeningly loud that could be compared with crushing metal - then a deadly silence.

They both laughed in relief. Loki uncurled himself, then pushed onto his elbows.

"That was fun." Na'qut said. "Haven't done that in a while."

Loki spat the blood out of his mouth. "No it wasn't."

"Aw, c'mon!" Na'qut stood up and stretched. "At least it worked."

Loki titled his head as a sign of recognition, but lay back down again, trying to settle his loud heart.

Na'qut went over to the what-was the whirlpool. Inside now was a golden box that contained 41 smoke daemons - the number of members in the original Council of Three Hearts. The council of sorcerers.

"You know the drill. Don't open it 'till you need to, blah blah. These ones will escape a damn sight quicker than any of the other ones if you open it."

"I know how to handle daemons." Loki finally summoned the energy to stand. He checked his ears for blood, and thankfully finding non though his ears felt dulled – like they needed to pop.

"I know," Na'qut picked up the box, then held it out for Loki, "Just makin' sure."

Loki took it, then ran a finger along the runes carved onto the side.

Na'qut glanced at Loki. "What?" Loki asked.

"Well, no thank-you's?"

"I'm _paying_ you. Is that not thank you enough?"

Na'qut shrugged, "See you again soon for your second batch."

Loki grimaced but nodded, "Infuriatingly yes. I will return in a few days after a respite."

"I thought we made travelling between worlds easier?"

"Not _that_ easy, easy enough that I can aim and actually be _awake_ the next day."

Na'qut chuckled, "Ah the joys of teleporting through realms without the bi-frost. Till next time Loki."

"Till next time." Loki agreed, "Don't enjoy it too much." And with that, Loki teleported back to earth, the box held tightly to his chest.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A knock sounded on the door and Sherlock he stood up followed by everyone else, "It only takes one to open a door." He muttered but they ignored him following him a few steps behind as he walked to the door and opened it up. A woman stood on the other side; she was about a head shorter than Sherlock with mousey brown hair reaching just past her shoulders in waves. She had brown eyes and looked quite tom-boyish. She was wearing jeans and a long red top but looked awkward in it.

She smiled at Sherlock who smiled back and leant forward to give her a quick kiss in greeting before stepping back, "C'mon in."

She stepped inside and grinned at everyone, "Hi! I'm Natalie."

"Natalie!" Irene announced stepping closer to her, "Great to meet you! I'm Irene, this is Evie and as you can probably guess this is Mycroft, Sherlock's twin brother."

They all shook her hand and Sherlock gesturing for them to sit down, "Drink?"

"Sure what have you got?"

"Cola, coffee, wine?"

"Red or white?"

"Red."

"That please."

"Good choice." Evie grinned at her and brought the bottle over along with some glasses. "We've made Lamb and potatoes for dinner; you're not a vegetarian are you?" Irene asked, "Sherly said you're not but you never know with him."

Sherlock scowled at Irene but Natalie laughed, a soft bell like sound, "Don't worry, I'm definitely not vegetarian. It smells delicious."

"I'm glad, Evie got here and said 'what the hell is that smell?'!" Irene told her, Evie shrugged sheepishly.

"To be fair it hadn't started cooking by then." Evie muttered, "So Natalie, tell us about yourself?"

Natalie shrugged, "I'm sure Sherlock's told you I'm an art teacher, I have an older sister and a niece who goes to our school."

"Did you always want to be an art teacher?" Mycroft asked curiously.

"Well I've always been interested in art and my art teacher was an inspiration for me so yeah I wanted to follow in his footsteps." Natalie shrugged again.

"So who asked who out?"

"I asked her a few weeks ago."

"I joined the school in September and had been waiting for it." Natalie grinned at Sherlock who smiled back.

"Are you aware," Irene said to Natalie, "That you were caught kissing? By students? One of which in my niece."

Natalie froze. "Oh God! Really?" She glanced at Sherlock.

"Um. Yes?" She sighed and whispered something in his ear, which no one else could hear but made him grin. He replied to whatever it was with, "Yeah, I know."

The others on the table glanced between them for a moment, before Evie said, "Well finally, we've been waiting for Sherly to get a girlfriend to embarrass him with." Evie smirked at her friend and Natalie laughed as Sherlock scowled.

"I didn't embarrass you with Steve." Sherlock muttered exasperated.

"No, but that's probably because I almost castrated you after embarrassing me to death in front of Jacob." Evie grinned at him which seemed to promise pain. Sherlock looked away sheepishly.

"So along those lines," Irene continued in Evie's defence, "If you ever get confused about these two," she motioned between the twins, "Sherlock's the one with the birthmark right-"

"_Irene_!" Sherlock barked cutting her off.

Natalie looked between them, "Where?"

"I'm sure you'll find out." Irene grinned and Sherlock blushed.

"Can we change the subject please?!"

"I'll go get the photo albums then!" Mycroft announced standing up but Sherlock's arm shot out and grabbed Mycroft's pulling him back down.

"What about dinner?" Sherlock growled.

"I'll check it." Irene stood up.

"Oh God, please tell me you didn't cook Rene?"

Irene stared at Sherlock with mock hurt, "How dare- of course I didn't cook! I _like_ my life, if I wanted to commit suicide I'll do it in a subtler way then commit homicide at the same time! I don't particularly want the Avengers on my dead ass!"

"And meet Irene!" Evie announced giggling, "She rant's about God knows _what_ – we rarely listen – and she can't cook to save her life. Actually, probably could, food poison, much more subtle in escaping captors."

"Huh. New escape plan." Irene grinned at the very confused looking Natalie, Mycroft realised she forgot about checking on dinner and went to do it himself.

"Do you have a zombie plan?" Evie asked Natalie.

"A...zombie plan?" Natalie glanced around to Sherlock who was staring at her seriously.

"For when the zombie apocalypse happens?" Evie prompted.

"_When_? Not _if_?"

"When." Sherlock nodded.

"I can't say I do."

"That's fine, you can join ours. We can explain over dinner."

"Discuss flesh eating monsters over dinner?"

"Yeah? What else does one discuss over dinner?"

"I...I don't really know."

"We can find out now," Mycroft announced, "It's done,"

Dinner went well, they realised they hadn't updated the zombie plan to include the Avengers either so they discussed that and Natalie found herself getting really into the discussion, they talked for hours until Natalie had to make her way home, Sherlock walked her home and Evie decided to make her way home as well.

As she walked she heard some yells from outside the nearby bar.

It wasn't unusual to hear yelling or shouting in the least, but you generally didn't want to get involved since the police would be called by someone if anything got out of hand.

She was walking home from the library. The young adult section badly needed sorting out again after the grade nines from a school on a trip had left it a mess, so she'd stayed behind to sort it out and now had to walk home. She could have gotten a cab but she didn't fancy it. Plus it was quite a warm evening, especially for late February.

She spared a quick glance at the centre of the fight. Two large men ganging up on the smaller one.

"What you gonna do, huh?" The man yelled to the smaller one. "Bite my kneecaps?"

The other man laughed.

"You don't know what I can do." The man spoke with the controlled voice that only Regalis could.

So the question was, of course, why was Regalis the centre of a fight, this late at night? She wouldn't have thought him the man to go to a bar, let alone start fights.

Maybe he was there because of her...she had told him they were friends and then hadn't seen or spoken to him for over a week because of that _one_ kiss, in this week it had been awkward between her and Steve but they had been started to continue as normal.

She wondered briefly if she should step in. She couldn't do anything but tell the men to stop at least not in public, though Clint had been teaching her self-defence but it had only been a few weeks since the lesson had started. But some small, insane part of her brain said, 'Well why the hell not?!' and decided for her, that she should step in.

"Hey, uh," She tried to sound friendly, "Could you stop beating up my friend here? What's he done to you?" The men seemed mildly surprised someone, a _woman_, had stepped in to try and stop this. Regalis looked horrified.

"Evie, stay out of this, I can cope on my own," He muttered to her, he sounded tired.

"Regalis, be real, what _can_ you do?" Regalis had a cut lip and one of his cheekbones was bruised. The men had obviously thrown punches.

Regalis murmured something under his breath that sounded a lot like 'something unimaginable'.

"This guy 'ere said my best mate Spike was a cowardly swine!" The man shoved Regalis onto the ground, while the other kicked him in the ribs. Regalis curled up and they kicked his back. It was a good thing she wasn't Bruce, or she'd be going all green right now at the injustice of the men. "Who even calls people _swine_ these days? Reckon he's been all frozen up like Captain America for three hundred years or summet?" The man who spoke then was large, with toned muscles showing through the tight t-shirt. Spike looked like a normal bloke, but had a mean face with small eyes and greasy hair. Both looked like they wanted a fight, and were confident they would win. They were going to beat Regalis up for the _pleasure_ in someone else's pain.

Regalis was unreadable. "I'm going to take the moral high ground and leave this, before one of us gets hurt." He slowly stood up with a barely concealed wince and turned away.

"Ya coward?" Spike said.

Regalis turned and faced Spike and the other man. Evie watched on, afraid someone would get hurt.

For a moment, Evie saw something in Regalis' eyes. Something that made her think he could topple governments, burn whole countries into _nothing_.

Make people kneel.

He grinned at the men. "No. I'm no coward." He was about to turn away, again, but when he did Spike spat on his face. Regalis calmly wiped the spit away and breathed in. "Well, it looks like drastic measures will have to be taken."

The next few seconds where blurry, but Evie knew that they were not the moves of someone who had no experience of fighting, in fact, they were a lot like Natasha's gymnast style of fighting, though Regalis didn't throw himself around as much. Regalis gave one well aimed kick to the smaller man's crotch, and as the man fell he sent a hard punch into Spikes solar plexus. As Spike was falling he thrust his knee into his nose. The momentum threw Spike away and blood flowed from his nose, staining the man's t-shirt. Regalis was down and over him, his arms holding Spike's arms above his head.

"Do you submit, _sir_?" He asked, calmly, like he had not just beaten up two men in less than ten seconds.

"What?!" Spike squealed.

"I said, _do you submit_?" Spike looked at Regalis like he was mad, for a split second, but quickly murmured that he did.

Regalis stood, grinned then wiped away some blood on his lip.

Evie was horrified. "What the hell was that, Regalis?! Where did you learn _that_?!" Regalis glanced at Evie like he had only just remembered that she was there.

"I'm sorry. You shouldn't have had to see that." He paused to wipe down his jacket. "I have had basic military training."

"Wha- _why_?" Regalis just looked at her, and didn't speak. "We need to get your cuts cleaned."

"They're only small, I've had worse."

Evie didn't even want to know by now.

"No. You look like shit."

"Thank you."

Evie pretended not to hear him, "Your place isn't too far from here. I'll clean the cuts for you and you need to sleep." Regalis looked like he was about to argue, but glanced away when he saw how serious Evie is. "And you're _exhausted,_ you can't do it yourself."


	14. Film Night

Regalis patted his pockets before sighing, "What's wrong?" Evie asked.

"My key must've fallen out of my pocket during the fight."

"Do you have a spare? Or have you given a spare to a neighbour?"

"That I do." Regalis nodded and reached up to the top of the door frame pulling down a small silver key.

"_That_ is the second _worst_ place you can hide your space key."

"Oh." He paused. "What's the first?" Regalis asked curiously.

"Under the door mat."

Regalis had the grace to look sheepish. "Where else could I hide it?"

Evie glanced around, "Behind the fire extinguisher, it's somewhere less obvious at least. But _after_ you make a new one." She added quickly when he took a step towards the fire extinguisher.

Regalis nodded and opened the door, letting Evie in first. Everything was mostly the same except for two interesting looking boxes in the corner by his paintings and the picture on the canvas in corner was part way through a drawing; Evie went over to look at it. It was only an outline, but it showed a woman looking down with a hand cupping her face. She peered at it, then realised that it was her. Blushing slightly she spun around catching Regalis' eye, he was watching her curiously, then dropped his gaze abruptly.

She knew Regalis was thinking about the kiss too, because he was avoiding her eyes. That was one of the things about the man. Every small gesture meant _something_. He never just turned away, he could be feeling embarrassed, or sad, or ashamed.

Some small part of Evie was proud she could read some of his emotions.

_Mostly._

He was still mostly a mystery to her.

But she had more important things to be getting to, instead of thinking about the kiss, when she had forgotten the books and the issued gun.

She pulled the chair from his desk and spun it around. "Sit. Take your shirt off." He smirked slightly at the request but complied anyways, Evie frowned at the small bandage on his wrist, "What happened there?"

"Hmm? Oh, a door." He lied easily. He sat down, his legs either side of the back of the chair, his arm hidden in front of him while Evie got some warm water and a flannel.

She came back a moment later; he felt her kneeing down behind him lightly cleaning at the wounds on his back silently. He winced at the antiseptic she put on them after cleaning them, "What's in the boxes?" She asked conversationally.

"Painting stuff." He answered with a shrugged wincing as Evie put more antiseptic on his back, "What is that stuff? Poison?"

Evie laughed, "Just savlon. S'all good. I love the smell of it." Evie spun the chair around and glanced at his chest and stomach which didn't look as bad as his back. Instead she quickly cleaned his face and then handed him back his shirt.

"Thank you." he murmured a he pulled it on watching her curiously as he did the buttons up, "Did you even have a plan back there?"

Evie shook her head, "Nope, but I may have a few secrets of my own." she smirked at his curious expression, "Anyway, I didn't know you could do _that_, so I wasn't gonna leave you to get beaten up. If anything _too_ drastic happens I just need to say a certain word and the Avengers will know something's up." she gestured to the necklace she was wearing, "Tracks me as well. Probably shouldn't tell you that though."

"Ah. Well we're lucky it didn't come to that."

"Why? Afraid Steve will beat you up for the kiss?" Evie's eye widened slightly as the casual way in which she had stated that.

Regalis watched her for a moment wondering if she was going to leave again but when she didn't he stood up, "That reminds me." He pulled the books off the book shelf and handed them to her. "I apologize. I would have brought them earlier but I wasn't sure if I was welcome. And uh...you left you jacket," he nodded towards it hanging by the door, "Is there a reason you have a gun?"

Evie frowned, "You went through my stuff?"

Regalis chuckled and shook his head, "No, I was looking for my scarf and the gun fell out."

"Ah, uh...I told you about the creepy evil guy that escaped prison?" Regalis nodded, "The Avengers issued me if for my safety. I keep actually forgetting I have it or accidentally making it really obvious." Evie grabbed her jacket and the books putting them both on the desk and sat down on the sofa, "Sorry I ran off so suddenly. I wasn't really sure how I was supposed to react to that."

"It's alright." Regalis shrugged sitting down beside her, he had done up all but the top three buttons of his shirt, Evie's eyes were draw to his pale flush of exposed skin.

"When...when that happened," She forced herself to look at his face, "I swear I sure your eyes go green for second."

Regalis didn't look that surprised and shrugged leaning closer to her, "What colour are my eyes now?"

"D-dark." Evie stuttered, and it was true. Even with his eye colour she could see his pupils were slowly getting larger. She could feel his breath on her skin. "I should get going..." Evie whispered, "Steve is going to be wond-"

Regalis cut her off with a kiss and Evie didn't fight away, instead she wrapped her arms around his neck, her tongue swiped out asking for entrance which Regalis gladly gave. When they eventually pulled away breathing heavily Evie knew she should feel guilty but she couldn't seem to care. Not after _that_.

Regalis stared at her for a moment as if waiting for her to run off again but when she didn't he smiled and placed his hand against her cheek. Evie smiled back placing her hand over his and leaning forward placing another quick kiss on his lips before standing up, "Tea?"

Regalis nodded watching as she walked into the kitchen and he heard the kettle turn on, Evie turned around to lean against the breakfast bar and look at him, "Kettles are much faster with a sonic."

"Well, I can think of a good way to pass time...?"

Evie chuckled and walked back around to climb over the back onto the couch, wrapping her arm around his neck pressing her lips to his making him grin against her lips, until the kettle starting dinging at them and Evie pulled away with a wink going to pour the teas.

When she came back she sat back down comfortably on the sofa beside Regalis and blew at her tea.

Regalis watched her silently knowing that she had something to say, she felt seriously guilty, Steve is a wonderful, incredible man and she was cheating on him, "I shouldn't do this." she murmured, "I love Steve."

Regalis placed his hand on her knee and stared into her eyes, "And what do you feel for me?"

Evie's eyes widened at the question unsure at how to answer. He was trying to make her feel uncomfortable, for some reason, she could tell. The strange workings of Regalis' mind. "I...I don't know. I mean I've only known you what? Almost two months but I know I like you a _lot_."

"I like you to Evie." Regalis sipped at his tea for the once finding himself struggling with his words, his silver-tongue failing him."I didn't actually expect to feel _anything_ like this when we met. Or _ever_." Evie didn't know what to say to that so she sipped at her drink and looked under her lashes at him to find him staring at her with unguarded wonder.

"What?" Evie asked blushing and Regalis shrugged.

"You say we should not do this, yet you do not leave. I'm afraid that I do not understand."

"We _shouldn't_ do this. But that doesn't mean I don't _want_ to. I feel guilty because I love Steve but in a way...I don't care about him, I only want you."

"So what are you going to do?"

Evie set down her mug of tea and turned to him; she took the tea out of his hand and lent forward kissing him slowly. He grinned against her mouth, and pulled her across so that she was straddling him, his strong arms reached around her waist gripping her T-shirt and pulling it over her arms. Evie briefly wondered why she didn't care, or try to stop him - but her mind went strangely blank after he started kissing at her neck.

As soon as she was free of her T-shirt she didn't hesitate with grabbing the back of his head and kissing him again her hands attempting to undo the buttons of his shirt, eventually giving up and with a growl of frustration she pulled the shirt apart, the buttons popping making him chuckle against her mouth.

**'**_**Who's strong and brave, here to save the American Way?  
Who vows to fight like a man for what's right night and day?  
Who will campaign door-to-door for America,  
Carry the flag shore to shore for America,  
From Hoboken to Spokane,  
The Star Spangled Man with a Plan!**_**'**

Evie reluctantly pulled away from Regalis to pull her phone out her pocket, she knew it was Steve calling from the ringtone and knew she had to answer otherwise he'd get worried. "Sorry," she murmured to Regalis who just shook his head and kissed her neck, Evie barely held in a moan as she answered the phone, "Hello?"

**"Evie, just calling to make sure you're ok? It's late?"**

"Sor-_ry_," Evie squeaked as Regalis hit a sensitive spot, "With Irene," Evie lied attempting to push Regalis away and stepped away from him but his arms tightened around her waist making her laugh.

"**What are you doing?"** Steve's voice had gone from concern to sudden absolute indifference.

"She's trying to take the phone." Evie lied again, he was playing with her hair now, tiggling her neck, mumbling something, "I'll be home in a bit."

"**Alright, I'll see you soon. I love you."**

"Yep. Me too." Evie cut off the phone and used both her hands to push herself away from Regalis, he grunted in disappointment but Evie just winked. "Sorry but I should get home." She leant forward and kissed him again before pulling her T-shirt on again and ran her hands through her hair. She knew she should feel guiltier than she does but she couldn't find it in herself to care right now as she picked up the books and her jacket, and winked at Regalis who was still sat on the sofa shirtless watching her with something that she couldn't actually distinguish in his eyes. She left.

Regalis watched her leave; as soon as the door closed he opened his hand and allowed a lock of Evie's hair to fall onto the table. He had cut it whilst she was distracted and used magic to make it grow back all done easily.

Regalis walked into his room and moved the rug out of the way, removed his shirt and sat down in the circle once more. He breathed in, then out.

"_Mutare me retrorsum, mutare me retrorsum_," he muttered.

A sharp crack filled the silence. He felt the familiar pins prodding him all over, the feeling was starting to become annoyingly familiar but he knew it was just for a while longer, his plan was coming together. There was just one more thing he needed to do.

The pain stopped and he smiled, "_Operaretur me_." He muttered standing up feeling the familiar weight drape across him.

Loki.

Stepping out of the circle taking a deep breath, after that last trip to Kalur he had taken a few days doing nothing but he was still so tired, he pulled the bandage off his arm and looked at the almost healed cut now scaring. He would have a brand new one before the night was over, he knew the scar would fade eventually but for now he had to keep them hidden from Evie.

Evie. She wants _something_ with him. What exactly, he didn't know, but it was something more than he was expecting. It might be the daemon inside her that is letting her do this without feeling guilty but it still meant she has these feelings inside her with or without the daemon.

Shaking away those thoughts he pulled a pair of scissors out of the drawer he cut off a lock of his own hair, then healed it. He grabbed at his cape cutting off two small strips near the bottom. Frowning at it he decided to fix it later.

He placed the lock of his own hair and one strip of his cape in the middle beside each other and closed his eyes, "_Attexo._" He ordered. The lock of hair and ribbon began weaving together tightly until it finished at each end, Loki continued, "_Pone fines simul et fac illud fortis_." He murmured. It floated into the air and titled around both ends were touching. Then it started glowing, when it fell back to the table, looking like a small black and green bracelet Loki opened his now green eyes and grinned.

Putting the bracelet onto the side table he took hold of Evie's hair and did the same thing. Once it was done he put the two bracelets together.

"_Adcucurrit. Custodiunt illud absconditum._"

Once they were both finished he put them safely on the side, stepped back into the circle closed his eyes "_Deportaturum duplici._"

Kalur.

"Loki, pleasure to see you again so soon."

"Na'qut."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Some of the Avengers and Evie's room-mates all sat around the large area talking and laughing together. Steve had invited them all for dinner to get to know Evie's friends better, and Tony was trying to play cupid between Irene and Bruce since he arrived home the day before.

"So Irene, I've been meaning to ask," Tony spoke up, "Are you like this with your patients?"

"Like wha'?" Irene spoke as she took another bite of the chocolate cake Pepper had baked.

"So..._fun_! Any therapist's I had were boring old sods. If I had you I probably would have actually spoke about the reason I was there."

Everyone except Pepper and Irene paused at the mention of Tony being in therapy, but he either didn't notice or the more than likely chose to ignore the reactions.

Irene didn't look particularly surprised and grinned, "That's what makes me so great. I'm casual. I took Dumbledore's idea though."

"Which one?"

Irene laughed."Lemon sherbet. Always got some on me." Irene pulled a small pack out of her inside pocket, grinned at them and put it back.

"What if they don't like lemon?"

"Chocolates, pack of Celebrations, rarely used." Irene shrugged, "Any sweets usually break the ice. Starting with Lemon Sherbets gets Harry Potter mentioned and someone's favourite Harry Potter can tell a lot about them. For example, my favourite character is Luna; she's a crazy girl that often gives the protagonists great advice. I'm a therapist I kinda _have_ to give good advice. She's not understood by anyone except her friends, and often not even them." She grinned at Mycroft and Sherlock who both chuckled, "And that's as far as I'm gonna go into detail. If you want your favourite characters psycho-analysed you know where I am. I'm suggesting it be private. I'll even do it for free unless you're the richest man alive. Then it'll cost you a couple of million." She smirked at Tony who laughed.

They all fell into a thoughtful silence for a few minutes until Clint broke the silence, "Can I have a lemon sherbet?"

"We all know you already ninja'd the packet while I was talking." Irene smirked at a scowling Clint who then reached into his own pocket to get them. "But go ahead." She turned to Steve, "Where is Evie by the way?"

Steve shrugged, "She told me she'd be late but didn't say how late." He frowned and both Irene and Bruce knew what he was thinking.

"Give her a call." Pepper suggested.

Steve did just that and when he put his phone back in his pocket and turned back to where the others were sat around the table talking carelessly, _Irene_ was flirting with Bruce who was blushing but trying to ignore the flirting and have a casual conversation.

Steve sat back down beside Irene who looked at him inquisitively, "So? What'd she say? Still at the library? Workaholic that girl."

"Yeah." Steve lied not wanting to walk about it in front of everyone, Bruce and Irene however sensed the lie and Bruce caught Steve's eye. Steve looked away; he didn't want to talk about it right now. He didn't want to believe it to be true. Why would she lie to him unless she was with Regalis? He hoped to God he's wrong but why else would she lie to him?

"Right, we should get going." Mycroft declared to the annoyance of Sherlock and Irene, "We all have to work in the morning." he reminded the two scowling adults nudging them to a standing position, "And I'm certain most of you have stuff you need to be doing. Thank you for dinner."

"You guys should come over more often." Pepper told them hugging Irene. "Maybe when there isn't a crazy man out there so everyone can be here. And maybe we can meet your girlfriend Sherlock, what's her name?"

Sherlock glared at Irene for telling them, "Natalie. She's an art teacher."

"Well bring her next time; we'd love to meet her."

It wasn't too long after they left when Evie got home and smiled at everyone but headed straight for Steve who was helping clean up. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek surprised when he didn't bend down to make it easier for her, "Sorry about that. Only met to have a quick chat and ended up staying for ages!"  
Steve shrugged silently as he piled up the dishes; he glanced up to see the other Avengers doing their own things so he took a deep breath and turned to her, "Irene was _here_, Evie."

Evie cursed under her breath and mentally struggled to come up with another lie, Steve was staring at her waiting for an explanation so Evie decided to tell him the truth. Most of it at least. "I was with Regalis." Steve's eyes flew closed in disappointment but Evie put a hand on Steve's arm making him look at her again, "I was walking past the bar, saw a couple of guys beating on another so I stopped to help, realised it was Regalis, he had a cut cuts and bruises so I offered to clean them for him as his apartment, but that's all. I cleaned his cuts and we _talked_."

"Why didn't you just say that?"

Evie shrugged, "I didn't want you to get the wrong idea."

"It's worse when you lie to me Evelyn."

"I know. I'm really sorry. I'll tell you the truth next time."

"Will there be a next time Evie?"

Evie shrugged, "I don't know. He's my friend so yeah, we might see each other. But that's all. _Friends_."

"If we were back in my time, then I would forbid you to see him. But I can't do that and I _wouldn't_ do that because I love you and I can't control you. But that doesn't mean I have to like it."

"I know." Evie wrapped her arm around his waist and lean her head into his broad chest.

"Is it because I want to wait before...?" he blushed and Evie looked up at him eyes wide and shook her head.

"_No_! Of course not Steve. I told you I don't mind waiting until _you're_ ready, whenever that may be ok?"

Steve just nodded silently before suddenly hearing the elevator start up. He looked up to see that the rest of the Avengers had scarpered and realised that he and Evie and forgotten to whisper through most of that talk. He blushed hoping they had gone before his latest question.

He glanced down at Evie who's head was cuddled into his chest and he loved her, more than he knew was possible.

But did she feel the same?

A few weeks ago he would have said yes, but now?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Regalis!" Evie greeted him two days later as he walked into the library walking around the desk to hug him; he stood surprised for a moment before laughing and hugging her back. She had to resist the urge to kiss him, in public there were people watching them, she couldn't. Instead she planted a light kiss on his neck.

"Evie I had a present for you,"

"Oh?" Evie looked hopeful but also shocked, "You didn't have to get me anything."

"I did."

"What for?"

Regalis shrugged, "I wanted to. Consider it a late Christmas present." He pulled out a small square box from his pocket and handed it to Evie; she frowned glancing at Regalis, "Open it." She opened the box up and gasped, inside was a beautiful black and green bracelet; she put the box down and held up the bracelet, it felt like it was made of silk plated together.

"Wow." She murmured, "This is beautiful." It slipped easily over her wrist.

It fit perfectly and felt as smooth as silk.

Regalis smiled, internally he was grinning, on his own wrist hidden beneath the long sleeves, the other bracelet warmed up, he could feel the magic working.

"Thank you Regalis."

Regalis shrugged, "I saw it and thought of you." With that he stalked off towards the Crime and Mystery section of the library and Evie went back to the desk a smile on her face.

Irene skipped into the library. A girl on a mission.

Evie had gone back to sitting at the desk occasionally glancing up to where Regalis was searching through the shelves for a book. Evie had a bag of Skittles not-so-stealthily hidden on the shelf under the desk. She kept on reaching down to get more, this being the reason why it wasn't stealthy.

"Oh, hay, Irene." Evie abruptly swallowed the Skittles, hoping Irene hadn't noticed. She had.

"Hi! So I was thinking about this Regalis guy that you insist on staying friends with, I've never actually met him so I was thinking of having a movie night tonight and invite him. Sherly and Croft are going out on a double date with Natalie and one of her friends," She grinned.

Evie made a face. "Has Steve set you up to spy on me?"

"... No." Irene grinned hopefully. She meant yes, and both of them knew it.

"Well, we can ask him, sure. He's over in the Crime and Mystery section."

"Evie, you know I don't know my way around here."

Evie rolled her eyes and sent her mock puppy eyes, "That's 'cause you never come to visit me,"

"So many books' gives me the creeps."

"How are we still friends?" Evie laughed and Irene rolled her eyes, "C'mon, then!" She called out to another of the staff to man the desk and linked arms with Irene and grinned. They both made their way over to the sofa's at the end of the Crime and Mystery section, where Regalis was sat, his gaze fixed on the book.

"Well, I can see why you kissed him." Irene muttered, grinning.

"Irene!" Evie whined.

Regalis looked sharply up at the sound of Evie's voice. They unlinked arms and Irene grinned her best flirty grin. "_Regalis_!" Irene greeted, "Hi! I'm Irene!"

Regalis rose an eyebrow glancing between Evie and Irene, "Irene? Huh. You don't look like how I thought you would."

"Good way or bad way?"

Regalis just shrugged so Evie interrupted before Irene would get offended, "So, Irene and me are having a movie night tonight, wanna join?"

"A... movie night?" he asked, "I... suppose I can. I might be busy." He was planning on going to get the next batch of Daemons tonight but he could leave that until tomorrow.

"Not taking that for an answer. You're Evie's friend; I'm Evie's _best_ friend. I need to get to know you."

Regalis regarded her carefully, he knew she had a different agenda but he wasn't sure exactly _what_. He was certain however it had something to do with he and Evies...what are they? In a relationship? Lovers? Friends with benefits? He wasn't sure. But for now, he wanted to know what Irene wanted. "In that case, I would be delighted to attend your movie night."

"Great. Meet me at my apparently at..." Irene glanced at Evie. "Seven?"

"Seven." Evie confirmed.

"Okay. I'll be there."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Four hours later, Evie heard a knock at the door.

"That'll be him." Irene muttered. She padded down the hall and flung the door open.

"Regalis!" She hugged him; he stood awkwardly for a second before hugging her back.

"Hi." He motioned with his head if he could walk in, and she nodded. "What's the film?" He sat down on one of the sofa's beside Evie. Irene walked out into the kitchen, to make popcorn.

"I don't know yet. Irene picked it."

"Great." He smiled tightly.

Evie laughed, after a second, he joined in with a grin. "Don't worry me and her have similar film taste...and taste in everything."

"Even men?"

Evie frowned at the odd question. "Well, _almost_ everything. Except for the twins our taste in men is very different, but then we ended up as just friends with them."

Regalis didn't seem to know what to say, they heard the microwave door slam. The popcorn was in.

Evie called out to Irene. "What film is it?"

Irene peeped round from the corner. "Uh, choice of three!" She grinned, then came through into the living room. "Batman: The Dark Knight, Avatar or Super 8."

"I've watched Batman." Evie added.

"And I've watched Avatar and Batman. Regalis?"

"I've not watched any of them."

"Well, we're gonna have to vote."

"I don't know anything about any of them!" Regalis whined.

"Deal with, Regalis." Irene muttered. She spread them out on the coffee table. "I vote Avatar."

"Wow, really? Um, Avatar I guess." Evie picked up the CD case.

Regalis smiled. "Majority vote, Avatar it is." Irene grinned, then hastily made it back into the kitchen to sort out the popcorn before it burnt. "What is Avatar about?" Regalis asked Evie.

Evie read the case. "Uh, basically, guy goes to another planet who the main inhabitants are blue and glow-y, to find unobtainium."

"_Blue_ people? That are _liked_?" Evie nodded distractedly as she put the CD into the DVD player, "Sounds... thrilling."

"I'm sure it is. Been wanting to see it for _ages_, James Cameron – the Director is a genius." Irene emerged from the kitchen, two large bowls in hand and one precariously balanced on her head, she had a huge grin on her face as attempted to walk into the living room without it falling to the floor. "Rene-y what the hell are you doing?"

Irene shrugged but that was a bad move at the bowl tipped to the floor, Regalis jumped to his feet and caught it perfectly, not a single popcorn on the floor. "Quick reactions." Irene commented, "Thanks."

Regalis shrugged and put the bowl down on the table, Irene placed the other two beside them before going back to get drinks.

Evie and Regalis each took a bowl and sat down on the couch, Irene came back put a bottle of Coke on the table, switched the lights off and plonked down in the middle of the sofa between Evie and Regalis.

Regalis sat awkwardly; Irene was too close for his comfort so he shuffled into the corner and curled up, tucking his knees under his chin. Irene moved up closer making him grimace.

He didn't say anything, though.

Evie played the film.

Around two and a half hours later, when the credits had just started, Evie laughed.

"That was awesome! The animation was amazing."

Regalis, who was staring at something no one else could see, muttered, "It was nice that she forgave Jake at the end, even though he lied to her. I wish everyone was like Neytiri." Evie nodded in agreement, then stood up to go turn the lights on.

"Blue people are sexy." Irene added.

"There's two kinds of people." Evie laughed.

"You find blue people attractive?" Regalis asked them both, sounding extremely confused.

"Yeah! You don't?" Evie asked him and Regalis shrugged.

Irene stood up abruptly to go to the fridge. "I'm getting some wine, anyone else want some?"

"Sure, just a small one, though." Evie smiled.

"Regalis?"

"I'm okay, thanks." Evie knelt down in front of the DVD player, while Irene went to go get the wine.

Irene came back in, with _three_ glasses.

"Irene?" Evie asked, regarding the three glasses.

She shrugged. "In case Regalis wants one."

In the course of the night, Irene and Evie would only get drunker while Regalis ended up staying completely sober.

Eventually, Regalis decided that since he couldn't hold out a proper conversation with either of them, he decided he should probably leave.

"Uh, where'd you think y'r going, mister?" Evie asked, her voice slurring.

"As I said, home. Both of you are drunk." He grinned, drunk people where quite amusing. Both of them grinned back, lazily.

"Uh, it's like, 2 in the mornin'." Irene checked her phone. "Jus' sleep on the couch."

"No thank you. I'll be fine walking home."

Evie wasn't having any of it. "Regalis, you're sleeping on the couch. Don't 'cho dare try leave this house." She giggled.

"Evie, you're in no state to decide if I should sleep on the couch or not."

"Well," Irene added, "I'll decide for her then. You're sleeping on the couch." Regalis sighed.

"You're not gonna let me leave, are you?"

"No." Both the women said simultaneously. Then they laughed, while Regalis rolled his eyes.

Evie stood up, then swayed slightly. "I'm gonna go have a shower, then bed. I'll see you in the mornin'."

"Are you sure you should have a shower right now?"

"Why shouldn' I?"

"You might fall and break your neck."

"Maybe you should join and keep me steady?" Evie winked before stumbling to the bathroom.

Irene sighed, then downed her drink. "I think I'll turn in too." She stood up, and practically fell over again. She took a wobbly step, and literally fell onto the couch. Regalis sighed.

He stood and picked her up, bridal style. She giggled. She smelt of alcohol.

Regalis carried her down the hall easily. "You must be stronger than you look." she muttered.

"Yeah. I guess." He carried her to her room, then dumped her on the bed. She giggled again. "You really _are_ drunk," he muttered. "You probably need to take those clothes off, too." Then his eyes widened at what he realised he just said. "No - no. I mean they smell of alcohol."

Irene was laughing the whole way through. She suddenly stopped and grabbed a handful of Regalis' collar and forced him closer to her, so their lips crashed together.

Regalis' immediate reaction: _What the hell is she doing?_

He tried to push her off, but he didn't want to hurt her either. She had a surprisingly strong grip and didn't notice how much Regalis was struggling.

This was wrong. This was so wrong. Regalis didn't want _Irene_. Why was she kissing him? She was too drunk to even make the kiss good. It was sloppy and wet and _wrong_.

But he had the chance, she's close to Evie, she gives advice. A kiss was the only way to do it and he wasn't going to get this again with anyone as close to Evie as Irene is.

So he stayed there for a second longer (As disgusting as it is) until it was done and then he put his hand on her jaw, and forced her head away.

He breathed again.

"You - are - drunk." He said.

"Yes." She shook out of his hand and leaned in to kiss him again. He shoved her away, hard. "Ow! What was that for?"

"One: you are drunk. I'm not going to kiss a drunk person. Two: why would I kiss _you_? You're not who I want to kiss."

"Oh, cause you want to kiss _Evie_." Regalis said nothing. "Anyway, never heard of a one night stand?"

"Yes."

"So...?" She raised her eyebrows.

"No. Why would you want to do it is if you know it would hurt Evie?"

"'Cause she's got Steve. Shouldn't be doin' anything wit you! Y'know, I don't get you. You're seriously attractive but you don't have, like, any friends." She stood up, wobbly.

"You should probably sit down, before you hurt yourself." She shrugged. She stepped forward and almost fell. He hand found Regalis' chest, somehow, and almost pushed him over before he dug his feet into the floor and gaining his balance easily.

"You're really cold." She spread her fingers over his chest, over his heart. She took note of how steady it was, not even beating quickly.

"...you didn't notice that when you kissed me?"

"No. Anyway', we kissed each other." Irene grinned.

"No. _You_ kissed _me_. I didn't want it." She seemed offended.

"What's going on?"

Both of the turned to see Evie, damp haired, standing in the doorway, slightly sobered up.

Irene stepped back, and giggled. "He _kissed_ me!"

"_What_?!"

Regalis sighed, "No I didn't. She kissed me!"

Irene was grinning. "He's lying."

Regalis stood mouth wide open. He couldn't believe her! What the hell was she doing? Turning Evie against him? He sighed. Probably. She's Evie's best friend, wants to look out for her. "Why would I kiss a who...oman like her?" Neither of them noticed the almost slip up.

"Irene! Why did you kiss him?"

"Why would you care? You don't go out!"

Both the woman started bickering. Regalis just stood, awkwardly, trying to get a word in without interrupting someone. He was going to regret giving her a daemon.

Eventually a gap came and he took it: "Be quiet, okay?" They stopped and listened, "Evie, though I find Irene kissing me a gross breach of my personal space, I'm okay with it. Irene. Please don't do that again". After a second, he smiled. "I doubt you'll remember this in the morning."

He left, wondering if he was still going to sleep on the couch.

He needed a goodnights sleep if he was planning on getting another batch of daemons from Na'qut the next day.


	15. Illness and Confrontation

**AN: Sorry this is late! I forgot yesterday, the weekdays are getting confused in my head.**

Steve glanced up as Irene walked quickly into the room and plonked down next to Steve, nodding at Bruce who was making lunch in the kitchen, "Alright, he's hot. I'd definitely do him. But he's nowhere near as sexy as you." She told him immediately, without hesitation or embarrassment. "And he's definitely not a stag."

Steve stared. "How do you know that?"

"I kissed him. He seemed pretty put off me after that. Although it was a bit of a ping pong session all night between us."

"You _kissed_ him?" Steve asked eyes wide.

"Yeah. He thought I was drunk." She considered. "Well, I was pretty drunk, but not _that_ drunk."

Steve glanced around at Bruce again who was watching them cautiously, he gestured to the door silently asking if he should leave. Steve hesitated before deciding he didn't mind having this conversation in front of Bruce and gave him a nod so Bruce came and sat beside them.

"Do you think she's..." Steve hesitated unsure of how to actually ask the question, Steve glanced one more at Bruce who was mentally putting together the conversation.

"Seeing him behind you back?" Irene finished for him making Bruce gape and Steve nodded. "I would love to say no, but I honestly have no idea. Evie is acting different but I couldn't imagine her doing that, she _loves_ you. I didn't think she'd ever love like this again after Jacob died," for the first time since Steve had known her, Irene hesitated in her words and for a moment Steve saw tears swirling just behind her eyes before she blinked them away, "But she did. She _does_, and she's not just gonna throw that away for some _random_ guy." With that, Irene stood up and stalked out without as much as a goodbye.

The two men sat in silence for a few minutes until Bruce spoke up tentatively, "Who's Jacob?"

"Evie's ex-husband. He died of a brain tumour a few years ago." Steve asked, his voice hoarse; Bruce didn't know how to answer to that.

Unknown to the two men, Clint had heard the entire conversation from the air vents above and had an idea forming in his head, but before he could approach anyone with it, he and Natasha were called away on a mission.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Thor sighed as he stalked into his father's study. He had to keep him updated on Earth happening. As he walked he thought about Loki's plan, it seemed this time he didn't want to be found or caught. This time his plan is different, _slower_. He didn't understand why - Loki had always hated waiting around. That was one thing they both shared.

Thor wondered what made Loki have so much hate inside him. Yes, he was always a trickster in school and didn't have many friends but Thor had always tried to include him. Maybe he's angry at the Allfather - but why then take it out on Earth? Just because Thor likes this planet and has friends here?

Thor remembered one time when, centuries ago, before their voices had even deepened, they were playing in the gardens outside the palace, when Loki had heard a small squeaking sound. After a small amount of looking around they had found the source of the noise – a bird, with a broken leg.

Loki had instantly scooped it up carefully in his hands. Thor had given the smallest glance to Loki – he was gazing at the bird with something of wonder at such a beautiful creature, so small and delicate. The feathers on its wings almost melted into each other – reds and blacks and blues and on the breast a white patch shaped like a love heart. Loki ran his thumb over the wing, and the bird lay still, staring worriedly at him. Loki had smiled, the gently placed a finger on the leg of the bird. He had muttered something, and the bird gave a shriek before almost collapsing onto Loki's hand.

"Brother, what have you done to it?"

"Do not worry, I have only healed it."

After they had got some bread and dried fruit from the kitchens and a small dish for water, and left both out for the bird. Next time they checked all the food was gone and so was the bird.

Thor didn't know why he was reminded of this now, but it made him smile none the less.  
Thor wondered why Loki seemed to hate _him_ so much. He hadn't known Loki was adopted, he doesn't _care_ that Loki's adopted but Loki didn't seem to understand that.  
He wished he could make his brother understand, but for the many months he was locked up _every time_ Thor tried to talk to him, Loki didn't listen.

And Thor didn't think he ever would.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Okay, Regalis, I've decided I don't know enough about you." Evie stated a few days later.

Regalis looked up from the book, confused. "You know plenty about me." Evie was fiddling with a necklace that Regalis didn't recognise, when she saw him looking, she quickly hid it making Regalis think she hadn't exactly got it by the most conventional means. Good.

"No I don't! To steal a line from Doctor Who, you talk but you don't ever _say_ anything." Regalis looked mildly impressed, and put down the book.

"Okay, so what are you gonna do about it?"

"Gonna ask you questions. You gotta answer them truthfully."

Regalis looked a little apprehensive. "What if I don't want to answer them?"

"Then don't, but only tell the truth if you do."

"Right. Okay. That's helpful."

Evie grinned. "Question one: What's your favourite colour?"

Regalis breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, so it's gonna be those sort of questions?" He winked and Evie giggled. "Okay. Green."

"Awesome. Mine's red."

"I knew that."

"I know you did, but I felt like I should offer up some information about me too. Question two: what's your favourite song?"

"Don't really have one."

"...well mine's Lucky by Jason Mraz."

"I knew that too. I also know that Irene found it quite amusing when she first found out."

Evie shushed him. "Shh," she stuck out her tongue and he laughed. "Question three: What's your favourite music genre?"

"Again, I like all music." he then pulled a face, "But not dub-step. It isn't _real_ music."

Evie laughed. "Okay, then, your favourite film?"

He answered immediately. "Avatar."

"You watched that with us a few days ago." She pointed out.

"Well maybe that's why it's my favourite."

There was a moment silence where Evie just smiled. "Well mines-"

"The Lord of the Rings."

Evie glared at him and he just grinned, "Okay. Well, you're favourite movie genre?"

"I like confusing ones, which you have to think about. And I like it when there's a happy ending."

"I like action-y adventure ones." Evie nodded. "Okay. You're best childhood friend. I want a description!"

Regalis laughed. "My brother. Blonde, taller and stronger than me. He was always there for me but that one time where I accidentally allowed him to run off with his friends. People got hurt, brother was kicked out. I was allowed to stay but then I had to try and get father to take him back."

"Your dad sounds like a bit of a jerk." She shook her head quickly. "Sorry. No offence."

Regalis laughed. "None taken! He loved me and everything but he _always_ favoured my brother. Wasn't till later I found out why."

"...why did he?"

He grinned. "If I told you that, I'm afraid I'd have to kill you."

She laughed, then nodded. "Okay then. First kiss?"

He grinned nervously. "Um..."

"Well my first kiss was when I was 14, and it was a guy called Wayne. He was a bit of an idiot to me after that and we stopped talking."

It took Regalis a moment to answer; he had to think about it being such a long time ago. His hesitance gave Evie the wrong idea, she suddenly gasped. "Was it a _guy_? Oh God, it wasn't your _brother_ was it?!"

"What?! _No_!" He frowned. "You think I'm gay?"

"Well, no, not after, um..." she waved her hands around a bit, symbolising when they kissed. "Doesn't mean you didn't..._experiment_."

Regalis shook his head. "No, I've never kissed a guy. _Especially_ not my brother." He shuddered slightly.

"So who was your first kiss?"

"Uh I think it may have been..." He hesitated, thinking. "Sarah, I think**. **I can't remember how old I was though; I think my voice had been breaking at the time." Evie laughed. "She was a friend of my brothers and he had invited her to a party."

Evie nodded. "Right. Another question, what where you hobbies when you were growing up?"

Regalis pulled a face. "I was a lazy ass." Evie burst out laughing and Regalis grinned. "I did magic tricks for a while."

"Seriously?" Evie grinned, "Show me."

Regalis smirked trying to think of human magic tricks, he stepped closer to her and put his hand by her ear and conjured a cent coin pulling it away. Evie laughed and took it from his hair, "Awesome!"

Regalis shrugged, "That's just a simple one."

"Alright then," Evie nodded, "Alright mister one more question," Regalis rose an eyebrow, "What's up with you lately? Ever since that fight at the bar you've looked so _tired_, are you ill?"

Regalis shrugged, travelling between realms and loosing so much blood each time has drained him but he took a day or so to rest, he was going again tomorrow. But he couldn't of course tell Evie that, so he shrugged, "I guess I might be getting ill. I feel fine though."

"Go sleep for a while?"

"I would but I have a busy few days planned ahead," The next batch of Daemons, he took a moment to wonder how many he had, he'd have to count them later.

"Oh?"

"Yep." Regalis winked, "See you soon."

"Oh, you're going?"

"That's what 'see you soon' usually means. Unless I missed the memo that changes it."

Evie rolled her eyes, "See you soon then."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was a few days in which there was on news report on Regalis except it next mentioned his name, you couldn't see his face in the picture, it was from the back as he and Evie hugged. Evie tried to convince Steve it was nothing and by the end he went along with her but she knew he didn't completely believe her.

A few days after that Regalis walked into the library again and found Evie who was busily sorting out a pile of books at the far end of the library, she bent down to pick up another one and Regalis watched her for a moment before joining her and picked up the next book in the pile. When she reached down to grab it she was surprised to find it already within arm's reach, she took it out of the hand holding it and followed the arm up to see a smiling but tired looking Regalis.

"_Regalis_!" she greeted cheerfully before frowning. He was paler than usual, his feet dragging and his eyes half closed. It didn't help that he was soaking wet from the rain outside.

He looked terrible.

"You look terrible."

"Thank you." Regalis muttered sarcastically falling un-gracefully backwards into a reading chair, his normally rigid back slouched. Evie went round the other side so she could face him.

"Where've you been lately?"

Regalis shrugged smiling, "Told you, I had a busy few days."

Evie looked slightly disbelieving, but grinned anyways, humouring him. "What've you been up to?"

He grinned. "Took a quick trip to another planet."

She laughed and waved with her hand for him to sit down. "Okay, honestly, what have you been up to?"

He laughed and sat down rubbing his face. "I think you were right. Think I'm getting ill."

Evie immediately leaned back further than necessary. "Ew, don't give me your germs!"

They both laughed. "I think I'm getting over it now finally."

"No." Evie shook her head, "You don't look it," she reached forward putting her hand onto his forehead; he frowned and tried to look up at her hand, "You've got a temperature. You should've called me or something. I could've helped out or something, y'know,brought chicken soup and rubbed vapour rub on your chest." She winked and Regalis blinked.

"I don't have a phone." He stated dumbly.

Evie laughed and considered. "True."

Regalis smiled. "And anyways, I've been living on my own for years now. I know how to cope with being ill."

Evie smiled sadly. "Just 'cause you're used to it doesn't mean you should suffer in silence!"

"Okay, okay, next time I'll contact you _somehow_."

Evie grinned. "I don't think there needs to be a next time, you're still ill."

Regalis rolled his eyes, he knew he shouldn't have come but he wanted to see her. "Nope. Just tired." And indeed, he looked it.

"What time did you go to bed last night?" she asked, in a motherly tone, while grinning. He giggled manically.

He really _did_ need sleep.

"I dunno." he yawned. "Maybe three A.M."

"Why were you up that late?" Evie asked. Had this been Tony, she wouldn't have asked and probably wouldn't _want_ to know anyway, it would most likely have to do with the Avengers, science or Pepper, but this was _Regalis_.

"You don't want to know." He winked lazily. She giggled, glancing about to check nobody was around and then stood on tip-toes to kiss him on the cheek. He automatically turned his head so the kiss ended up half being on his lips.

Evie laughed. "You should probably get home and sleep or something."

"I _have_ slept. I slept till...what's the time?"

Evie rolled her eyes, "Almost one."

"I slept till noon then."

"But you're still tired so you should sleep."

"No thanks," he said, a little childish tone creeping into his voice, "Sleeping is boring."

"You sound like Sherlock."

He laughed. "You're friend or the character?"

"Both?"

He laughed again, "Honestly though, I never even slept as a teenager." He considered. "That's probably why I didn't pass my math exam!" He sounded surprised, but then the grinned and laughed to show he was joking.

Evie laughed with him, and then James – one of the other workers at the library – came around the corner, "Could you two go flirt somewhere else? I think Regalis scares off people."

"He wouldn't harm a fly!" Evie yelled back, laughing.

Regalis blinked. Surprised.

James shrugged. "But he _could _probably harm a full grown tiger with his hands. Honestly, go somewhere else. It's almost your lunch break anyways!"

"Wha, really?" Evie blew him an air kiss and he laughed and nodded. "Thanks!" she linked arms with Regalis and muttered, "C'mon, you need some coffee in you."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A few minutes later, they sat in a quiet cafe with two cups of coffee. Regalis was drinking his quickly.

"Slow down! Make it last." He grinned and put the drink down. "Okay, so what were you _really_ doing last night?"

He shrugged. Evie was getting curious about it now. "Honestly, it was nothing."

Evie was about to say something when her phone went off. She glanced at Regalis and muttered an apology.

She answered it: it was Steve.

**"Hey, Evie. You're not at the library, where are you?"**

"I'm at the cafe down the street. You know, the one with nice couch's inside?"

**"Oh, cool. Mind if I join you?"**

"Course not. Regalis is here though." Regalis looked up at the mention of his name.

Evie could hear Steve sigh. **"You know I don't want you hanging round with him, Evie..."**

"I know, I know, but he looked like he was about to die from exhaustion so I bought him a coffee. Nothing more, nothing less."

**"Okay, well, I'm coming now. I love you."**

"Me too. See you in a bit." Evie hung up. "Steve's meeting us in here. Want to scarper?"

He grinned confidently and downed his drink. "Nah. I think I'll just stay put." Regalis stood up. "I'm going to get a sandwich. Want one?"

"Yeah. Can you get me a ham one? Cheese if there aren't any left."

"Sure."

Regalis walked over to the counter, a $10 bill in his hand. Evie watched him go.

Steve then abruptly sat down at her table, on the other side.

"Evie, what are you doing hanging round with him?"

"I told you we're friends Steve. When he gets back you tell me if he looks like he's okay? Cause I don't want him getting himself hurt." Steve looked a little cautious. "Honestly, there wasn't any other reason. I told him to go home and sleep or something but he wanted to stay instead."

Steve rolled his eyes, as Regalis came and sat down at the table. Steve stood up and sat back down again on Evie's side putting his arm around the back of the chair; Regalis rose an eyebrow at the defensive body language but didn't comment.

"Ah, Captain pleasure to meet you again so soon." Regalis grinned and held out his hand, which Steve didn't take.

Evie sighed. "Listen; if you two are going to fight please take it outside. I'd rather eat my lunch in peace."

Regalis shrugged, "I'm not really in a fighting mood, sorry cap. Here's your sandwich Evie. "

Evie looked at the packet. "Ham, great. Thanks. How much do I owe you?"

"Nothing, my dear." He stuck his tongue out a little. Evie rolled her eyes, along with Steve (but Evie was internally wishing Regalis would stop being so damn flirty around Steve) "Seriously, you paid for the film night thingy."

"Irene paid."

"And you're basically the same person, so it counts all the same."

"We're not the same person!" Evie disputed but then shrunk a little, "Are we?" She looked between Steve and Regalis for confirmation.

Regalis smirked; Steve was just openly glaring at Regalis and was tensing and un-tensing his fist under the table. He could see why Evie liked him, and even though he looked presumably rougher than usual he was still pretty attractive. He was charming and funny too, and if he had known Regalis under different conditions he knew he probably would have liked him.

Steve suddenly stood up. "I'm going to go get a sandwich. Regalis, help me choose?"

"No answer then?" Evie muttered making Regalis chuckle and after a moment, nodded. He had only been delaying it, really. The almighty 'stay away from Evie,' talk.

He stood up and glanced at Evie in a 'don't worry, I'll be fine' kind of way and followed Steve up to the counter.

As soon as they were out of earshot of Evie, Steve rounded on Regalis who calmly regarded him back.

"You stay away from Evie, okay?" He muttered harshly.

Regalis smiled slightly. "She works in a library. I like books. You can't keep me away, my friend." He said the last two words sarcastically, and he could see Steve clench his jaw.

Steve glanced at Evie, realising she was watching them carefully. He made a small noise that Regalis smirked at and turned to face the fridge with the sandwiches in.

"Stop going to her library then. There are tonnes of them in New York."

Regalis grinned. "Ah, but then I wouldn't be able to see Evie."

Steve made a low growl of annoyance. "You're an annoying little _child_, you know that?"

"All the better to irritate you with, my love." He laughed at Steve's slowly building anger. Steve grabbed a sandwich and slammed the door of it shut, almost breaking it. A few people in the café looked over but the two men ignored the glares.

"You stay away from Evie or I will-"

"You'll what?" Regalis interrupted harshly, Steve knew what he wanted to answer with but before he could Regalis leaned in close to Steve. "Whatever you do, you risk hurting Evie. I don't think so, Capt'n."

Steve stood straighter. He was only a little taller than Regalis. "What do you mean, _hurt_ her?"

"I mean, you do _anything_ negative to one of her friends she isn't gonna trust you anymore. She's gonna be too busy worrying about me, whatever you do to stop her." He grinned again. "Now, I believe I have some sleeping that I need to catch up on. So long, _Steve_. Have a great life." He laughed at his own joke.

Steve watched as Regalis strode over to Evie, said something (that Steve couldn't hear) and while looking Steve directly in the eye leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. Evie did nothing to stop him.

And with that, Regalis left with a mock salute.

Steve stared at the door expecting Regalis to come back in, "I'm _so_ changeable!" an Irish accent rang through his head, frowning he tried to remember where that was from but couldn't so he continued buying his sandwich and re-joined Evie.

"Are you angry?" She asked him when he didn't speak.

Steve shook his head, "No... Well perhaps. I just wish you weren't friends with him."

"But I am. I don't understand your problem, we're _just_ friends. Come on let not argue, can't we just have a nice lunch?"

"Yeah. _Yeah_. Course." He bit into his sandwich.

After they ate Steve went back to the tower and Evie went back to the library surprised to find Regalis there, "Hay, what are you still doing here?"

He shrugged, "Waiting for you, didn't think Steve wanted me there any longer."

"Sorry about him, just be glad you haven't met Croft or Sherly yet. They're worse than Irene and Steve put together in the protectiveness of me. It's like nobody actually thinks I can take care of myself. Annoys the hell outta me. I mean I get that they're worried and we'd do that same for Irene but really, I can protect myself."

"Have you tried talking to them?"

"Well they've scared some boyfriends away so I've done more than talk. More like yell." Regalis chuckled, "Anyway, you're not gonna hurt me."

Regalis blinked, "What makes you so sure?" For a moment Evie thought he was joking and then realises he actually sounded genuinely curious so she shrugged.

"You're my friend. I trust you."

"But we've only known each other not even two months."

Evie shrugged again, "Doesn't mean I don't trust you." Regalis blinked again a small smile slowly spreading across his face.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Regalis winced as Evie shifted, she was leaning on his arm, the one Na'qut lives to carve into every few days.

But he couldn't very well tell Evie about that, he could cast a quick spell to cool it down using the power from his Juton side but he couldn't do it with Evie leaning on him, they were just watching a film together on Evie's laptop - White Fang.

"Evie, my arm's starting to go numb." he commented hoping that it would make her move.

"Sorry." she muttered sitting up for him to move his arm, but when she laid back down she felt uncomfortable. Scowling she paused the film and stood up, Regalis looked up at her eyebrow raised, "Gonna grab a cushion from your bedroom."

"Ah ok." he nodded and watched her go, quickly before she could return he put one hand a top his injured arm. "_Faceret illud frigus_." he muttered and felt his arm immediately cool down, sighing in relief just in time for Evie to come back into the room.

"Sorry, did you say somethi-" Evie cut herself off as the cushion she was holding suddenly turned to water and splashed onto the floor around her feet soaking the floor and her socked feet. Regalis jumped to his feet ready to fight; Evie however just stared at the water spreading around her feet, pure shock in her eyes.

"Evie?" Regalis asked carefully, "Are you ok? What happened?"

"I..." Evie moved her hands to stare at the palms.

"What happened?" Regalis repeated starting to think there's no danger.

Evie shook her head, "I haven't lost control like that since I found out Jacob is gonna di-" Evie cut herself off, her voice hysterical, she was panicking.

"Evie, what are you talking about? Did you do that?"

Evie nodded slowly, "I uh...I didn't mean to."

"It's fine Evie." Regalis frowned, "Are you a mutant then?" he asked bluntly, Evie nodded again seeing no point in playing dumb. "Oh. Ok. Why haven't you told me before?" Evie shrugged staring at him with wonder in her eyes; obviously that wasn't how she had expected him to reply. "Have you told anyone before?"

"Rene, Croft and Sherly. They know. Jacob and Aunt Maggie knew."

"And Steve doesn't?"

"None of the Avengers do. I've kept it secret for so long, telling anyone just seems terrifying. I mean I know Mutants are more accepted now but not completely, and I just...I haven't lost control in _years_ I don't know what happened."

Regalis knew exactly what happened, his magic spread for only a second, it wasn't generally felt but it's a possibility that it would make a mutant lose control. But again, he couldn't tell Evie that.

"Now your rant about protecting yourself makes a bit more sense."

Evie shrugged with a helpless look in her eyes, she didn't know what to say, "I can fight as well but I guess that's my secret weapon."

"Evie, it's ok." he carefully took hold of each side of her face forcing her to look at him, he stared earnestly into her eyes for a moment before leaning forward to kiss her forehead, "I don't care," he kissed between her eyes, "If you're a mutant," he kissed the tip of her nose, "Or big foot." lastly her lips, "Ok?"

Evie's eyes widened and tears sprung to her eyes, "That's exactly what Jacob did when he found out. Thank you Regalis."

Regalis smiled, "We'll just clean this up and finish the film?"

"Yeah, sure. Uh, I could do it quickly."

"Oh?"

Evie nodded and held out her hand, it was shaking but she had a determined look on her face and slowly all the water that had spread on the floor seemed to shrink backwards and then begun to lift towards her hand gathering into a small ball of water an inch below her palm, Regalis' eyebrows rose to his hairline. Once all the water was off the floor it gently floated towards the sink and went down the drain.

"Huh." was all Regalis could say.


	16. Painting in the Gallery

**AN: WARNING! Mentions of self-harm!**

"Hello, Evie!" Regalis grinned as he walked into the library a few days later, last night he got another batch of daemons and he was tired today. He knew he had to see Evie before she thought he was avoiding her because of her powers, she did seem a bit guarded over them.

Evie looked up at him wariness in her eyes, "Regalis," she greeted him cautiously. "You alright? You look tired again."

"Yeah, I'm good." He smiled softly at her, "I'm still a bit ill but I'll survive."

"Good. Now, that book you wanted arrived yesterday..." She looked around under the book before finding it and handed him the book. As he extended his arm the sleeve of his purposely long sleeve top slid up slightly – revealing the bottom of a cut.

Evie saw it and slowly comprehended what she was seeing.

She grabbed his arm and slid his sleeve up, revealing a large bunch of marks in neat lines down his arm.

Damn Na'qut and all the blood he needed!

"Regalis! What the _hell_?" She yelled. In a library. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at them both.

He panicked. "Shh, Evie! It's not what it looks like!"

"Not what it-" Evie cut herself off and looked around where everyone was staring before lowering her voice, "Not what it looks like? Regalis, it looks like _scars_. On your wrist! _Loads_ of them."

"No! Well yes, it is. But it's not what you _think_."

"What is it then? Did you slip..._seven_ times?"

"_No_!"

"Well? _Explain_?"

He couldn't, not without ruining his entire plan and Evie isn't ready just yet, "I can't."

Evie shook her head, "No. Sorry Regalis but I'm not taking that for an answer. You're my friend, _please_ let me help." Evie reached out her hand and took his hand, gripping it tightly.

"Evie, _honestly_. You _can't_ help, there's _nothing_ you can do."

Evie hesitated, "Why not?"

"Because this isn't something you can understand."

"No, maybe not but I can _try_."

Regalis shook his head, "You can't. I'm sorry." With that Regalis wretched his hand from her grip and turned to stalk out of the library.

Evie considered chasing after him but she knew that he wouldn't like that so she spent the next hour pacing and straightening shelves, OCD'ing over it. She struggled to answer politely when someone came to ask her about some books. Until she couldn't take it anymore and grabbed one of her co-workers, Amy, asking her to cover for her for the rest of the day and Evie promised to cover next time she needs it.

"What wrong?" Amy asked concerned seeing the panic and necessity on Evie's face, "Sure of course I will, but what's wrong?"

"Uh...kinda family stuff. Thank you so much." Evie hugged the girl and jogged out of the library and pulled out her phone.

"**Hello?"** Mycroft answered he sounded distracted, he was pacing.

"Croft, hey are you busy?"

"**Slightly," **Pause in his pacing,** "But it sounds important. What's up?"**

"Uh...I kinda need your advice on something but it's a tetchy subject."

She could hear Mycroft's worried frown, pacing again, **"Anything Evie. What is it?"**

"Can we meet?"

"**Yeah, at the apartment?"**

"Thank you Croft." Evie ran through the cold weather, too cold for a March. Even though she knew it'd take Mycroft a while longer to get there than it would here from his law firm. She considered making coffee but instead opened a bottle of wine. It was still early but right now she needed to relax, one of her best friends was harming himself. Anyway what was so bad about drinking so early?

Ok. A lot but right now she couldn't care less.

A glass and a half later Mycroft walked in, he eyed her drink, "Evie, it's barely _one_."

"Sush, not today."

Mycroft shrugged holding his hands up in surrender, "If you're having one pour me a glass?" Evie did just that as Mycroft sat down beside her, Evie glanced at his wrists as he took the glass from her and he noticed this, it took him a moment to process the meaning of the glance but when he did panic gripped him, "Ah, it's about that?" Evie nodded and Mycroft barely resisted the urge to grab her arm to check it wasn't her, "Evie-"

"Not me don't worry. Uh...Regalis he came to the library earlier and I saw scars, on his wrist. They looked old but some newer, one looked very new, but he didn't say anything he just left,"

"Evie," Mycroft spoke slowly, carefully, "You remember what happened when you found out about me right?"

Evie nodded, she kept asking and he ended up yelling quite rude and exceptionally nasty things at her in the middle of a study hall about her mum being a drunk and her dad leaving. He didn't mean any of it but he had been stressed and angry at her for trying to force him to talk, and then they didn't talk for a few weeks until Evie finally apologised for bugging him about it and he apologised for what he said and actually broke down and talked to her.

Apparently his parents had disowned him for being gay and he was being bullied for it. Sherlock had been completely unaware of this development he had noticed Mycroft never went home for the weekend but didn't think much of it. Evie felt ashamed that she hadn't noticed he was being bullied, with Irene and Sherlock's help she managed to scare the bully's into actually _leaving_ the college and then yelled at Mycroft's parents and Sherlock disowned them. Hadn't spoken to them since then.

As far as she knew he hadn't harmed since that day for which she was extremely grateful for.

"So you know not to keep asking him about all the time?" Evie nodded again, "Let him know you're aware. Let him know you're here to talk but don't ask him every ten minutes ok?"

"Ok."

"If you would like, tell him you know someone else that has self-harmed and I'm more than willing to talk to him. I understand why he's doing it."

"Croft that would be great. _Thank you_."

"Anytime Evie I want to help anyone if I can." Evie smiled softly at her friend who just smiled nervously in return before relaxing back in the sofa, "So I got someone to cover for the rest of the day off. I assume you did to?" Evie nodded so Mycroft grinned, "Movie?"

"Sounds great."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Evie was nervous, she had managed to relax with Mycroft for a few hours but she knew she had to face Regalis, she couldn't wait until the next day, so just before going home she went to Regalis' apartment.

When she knocked she had to wait a few minutes before the door opened slowly and Regalis sent her a questioning glance, he looked wary.

"Regalis. Look, I'm sorry about earlier I just panicked and I worry about you, you've been a bit cranky lately and you look ill. I want you to know that I'm here to talk whenever you want about absolutely _anything_ ok? You're my friend and," she grabbed his elbow and pulled him down to kiss him, "I want to be here for you. _Ok_? I don't think you're wrong for doing this, you have your reasons and I want to help if I can. But if I can't, I'm here anyway."

Regalis nodded and swallowed, "Ok. Thank you Evie." he moved to open the door wider and Evie stepped inside.

"Oh, just more thing and I'll shut up," Evie said as he closed the door, "I uh, you know my friend Mycroft?" Regalis inclined his head in a 'yes' motion, "Well he used to uh...he used to self-harm when we were in college eventually I found out things got messy blah, blah. But I went to talk to him and he told me he's willing to talk to you if you want of course and he could I dunno...tell you how he stopped and stuff."

Regalis looked somewhat overwhelmed at the offer and nodded again, "Thank you, but it's unnecessary."

"Just keep that in mind?"

"I will. Thank you. Drink?"

"Coffee please." Regalis nodded and went to make one, Evie stood on the other side of the breakfast bar, "Oh hey, it's Mycrofts and Sherlock's birthday soon."

"Same day?"

"Yeah. Twins. I've got them their presents but I wanna make them more personal. They're cool boxes that are voice recognised, if I brought them both here would you mind helping me paint them? Well Steve's done the drawing but they're marble and we don't have the right paint, it won't take long to get it but do you have the paint?"

Regalis blinked taking a moment to decipher her babble but eventually he nodded, "I think I do. Just let me know and I'll help as much as I can?"

"Thank you."

They chatted for a while, and kissed for just as long and then Evie made her way home, "Evie!" Tony greeted her cheerfully from the dinner table; Evie noticed that only Tony, Pepper, Bruce and Steve were here today, "You're late."

"Sorry. Had a _long_ day." She took her seat beside Steve kissing him in greeting.

"What happened?"

"Uh...re-visiting long forgotten shit."

Steve rose an eyebrow at her language, Tony just laughed, "I know what that's like. We were saying before you turned up that it's almost Sherlock and Mycroft's birthday isn't it?"

"Yeah, in two weeks. April 5th how'd you know?"

Tony rose an eyebrow at her and Evie rolled her eyes shaking her head in exasperation. "So what are we going to do?"

Evie shook her head, "We usually all take the day off, grab all our duvets and have an _us_ day. Just Me, Sherly, Croft and Irene."

"Oh." Tony looked disappointed, "You sure they wouldn't want a party?"

Evie rolled her eyes, "I doubt it. They're not a party people. Ask them if you want though."

Tony scowled, "Weirdo's."

"Because they doesn't like to be in a room full of strangers with loud music? Heck I don't understand how anyone can _not_ like that!" Bruce muttered, sarcasm dripping from his voice, everyone laughed except Tony who's scowl deepened.

"No need to be a smart ass."

"Oh Tony, there's _many_ reasons to be a smart ass."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A week later, after collecting another batch of Daemons, how many did he have now? Loki made a mental note to count the boxes and how many of each he has so far.

Regalis walked into the library he stood patiently behind the small group of people talking to Evie when he recognised Irene. He took a moment to wonder if the kiss-daemon had affected her yet. It took about a week for Evie, a couple of weeks for Stark, how long would it take Irene? He knew the Daemon wouldn't change how she feels about him, but it would change how she acts, so maybe she hadn't told Steve how close he and Evie were so that was helpful but would she end up being of any use? She's not powerful or particularly strong, the worst she'll end up doing is bitching at her friends. But she's Evie's best friend so it'd be good to have her lenient and helpful. It hadn't been in his original plans but then neither was Evie.

The other two however, he didn't know them. They both looked very similar almost identical, with dark frizzy hair and bright blue eyes but there were obvious difference between them like one was taller than the other and on had slender hands, fingers.

"Regalis!" Evie grinned as she noticed him, Irene turned to glare at him.

"Reg," Irene greeted him, his eyes narrowed at the nickname, he didn't like nicknames. "This is Mycroft," she pointed to the man with the slender hands, "and Sherlock." she pointed to the taller man who rolled his eyes.

Evie sighed exasperated, "_Irene_!"

"Yes?" Irene grinned at Evie innocently.

"I'm Mycroft." The taller man corrected Irene with a roll of his eyes, "This is my brother Sherlock."

Regalis nodded not particularly surprised that Irene had tried to confuse him, "Twins?" Twins were very rare on Asgard and quite often the mother would die in childbirth if she did have them, so it was a wonder to see so many on Earth.

"Non-identical." Sherlock answered.

"Very similar though." Evie muttered, "I did get confused with you both for a while,"

"Still do."

Evie rolled her eyes a fond smile on her face, "Only when I can't actually see you. You're voices are also exactly the same and the back of your head. You have very similar backs of heads."

"Oh god, I'm going _bald_?!" Sherlock yelled his hand going straight to the back of his head and staring at the back of Mycroft's. Mycroft's eyes widened and touched the back of his own head glaring at Sherlock when he felt a full head of hair.

"You're the worst brother ever."

"Love you too." Sherlock smirked, "I should be getting back to work, have fun Evie remember what we told you." He leant forward to kiss her cheek before grinning at Regalis and stalking out of the library. Regalis frowned, it looked like Sherlock had grinned but his eyes...it wasn't exactly a glare but it might as well have been.

"I should get going to, lunch hour's almost over. Pleasure to meet you Regalis." Mycroft held out his hand to shake, lifting it just enough for his sleeve to slide down just enough for Regalis to see a small scar.

Ah. This was the man that offered to speak to him about his 'Self-harming' that Evie assumed he was doing last week. As Regalis shook Mycroft's hand he took a minute to admire him.

That wasn't something Loki did often. But this man was a complete _stranger_ that offered to help another stranger with something just because he _wants_ to help. Loki wasn't used to Random Acts of Kindness. He was used to Random Acts of Trickery.

So he smiled genuinely at Mycroft, "And you Mycroft. Thank you for the offer." although he didn't actually need it, he was definitely touched by it. Mycroft smiled softly, turned to hug Evie and Irene before leaving.

"Offer?" Irene asked curiously.

"To sell you as a slave to him." Evie answered completely serious making Regalis laugh.

"Oh." Irene frowned, "That's not very nice. At least sell me to someone awesome."

"Ouch!" Regalis mock-winced putting a hand over his heart, he didn't actually care but it seemed like the thing to say.

Irene shrugged, "You don't like me I don't like you. We both know it, no point in pretending to like each other."

"You know, except for your best friends sake." Evie muttered under her breath. "Have you actually ever heard of tact?"

"Tact is just not saying true stuff. I'll pass." Regalis rolled his eyes, "But the twins have gone back to work and so should I. I think you should to Reg."

Regalis narrowed his eyes, "I've only just arrived."

"And you should leave."

"_Irene_." Evie warned.

"Alright, alright. _Leaving_." Irene hugged Evie kissing her cheek, "Love ya. Don't forget what we were talking about."

"I won't." Evie answered, "Love you too." Irene sent another open glare to Regalis before skipping out the library.

Regalis turned his eyes to Evie, "What did you talk about?"

"First time I've ever actually seen them all come into the library at once." Evie muttered, "Uh...it was kinda an intervention."

"For?"

Evie glanced around and lowered her voice, "Me and you. They know what we're doing and don't like it. Well they suspect, don't actually _know_ anything but not the point."

"Ah. Aren't interventions usually done at home?"

"Yeah but I do live with the Avengers."

Regalis rolled his eyes, "At their apartment?"

Evie shrugged, "I could escape. Can't escape when I'm working. Well except for my lunch break which technically was an hour ago but they stole it so, fancy going for lunch?"

"Sounds good to me."

They went to a different café to usual, ordered their lunch and sat down together but they didn't speak, Regalis took out a sketchpad from his man-bag and started sketching something. He didn't show her what he was doing, nor did he offer to, so Evie didn't look.

Eventually, when Evie almost finished her soup, he suddenly flipped the book round to show her what he'd drawn with only two pencils (he said one was hard and the other soft, whatever that meant).

It was an urban city skyline – but with impossible shining stars above.

"Beautiful." Evie muttered.

Regalis shrugged. "Thanks, but it's an art critic I need to hear that off."

Evie laughed. "Fair enough. What about your portfolio? You got one sorted the other week right?"

"Well, yes, but it's not big enough really. I've got four artworks in it and one of them I don't even like." He sighed and closed his book. "Hopefully one day I'll get something put in a gallery. Then I might be able to stop living off dad's money."

They sat and chatted a while longer, while Evie finished up. She was about to stand when a man came over. He looked like he was in his mid-thirties, with mousy brown hair and eyes that where somewhat sunken into his skull. He was wearing a grey suit and reminded Evie of Remus Lupin.

"Sorry, but I couldn't help but over hear you talking before - you're an artist?" He asked. He sounded like he was from New York, but also very articulate.

"Yeah." Regalis answered carefully.

"Can I have a look? I'm Michael Bryan, by the way."

Regalis narrowed his eyes at him and Evie held her breath. He hadn't let her see his book, and when she had asked to he had almost yelled no. But then he had apologised but just said that there was some private stuff in it that he didn't want her to see.

"I'm Regalis." They shook hands, then Regalis asked why he wanted to see the book.

"Well, my dad owns a gallery downtown and I'm interested in art. I just love it." He did seem to be excited about it. Regalis considered, looked at Evie then back at the man and slowly handed the book over.

Evie, though probably shouldn't have, felt a little bit annoyed at Regalis. He'll show a complete _stranger_ his book, but not her?

Bryan looked through the book, his mouth a little open. At one he stopped and glanced at Evie, then back at Regalis who nodded.

Was it a drawing of her? She didn't know. He hadn't shown her, though was obviously very capable of doing so. She had seen some in his bedroom stuck around the walls and the first time she had seen it.

"These," Michael breathed, "Are amazing." He shut the book. "There's a spot open in my dad's gallery. Listen, I know this is really sudden and everything but can I take this? You can come with me, if you want. I want to show these to my father. I think he might give you a place in the gallery."

Regalis breathed in sharply. Evie glanced wide-eyed between the two.

Regalis stood up, though his mind was absent from his body. "Evie, I'll talk to you later." And then suddenly snapped out of it and grinned whole heartedly at Michael. "Lead on!"

"Wait, you don't even know this guy! He could be a serial killer or something!"

Michael rose an eyebrow but didn't comment as Regalis laughed. "One: There haven't been any murders in New York for ages."

"Doesn't mean you're not the first of the...serial."

Regalis continued ignoring her comment, "Two: I can handle myself. Remember at the bar?"

"Not just the bar, you had a fight with that guy in the library the other day but yeah, I don't actually want you to be hurt. Plus you look shattered."

"It'll take a lot more than fists and kneecaps to hurt me." Regalis suddenly looked somewhat vulnerable - but the look was gone quicker than it came. "I'll be fine. Go back to work."

Regalis motioned to Michael for them to leave.

When they did, Evie was somehow only filled with worry. This was a fantastic opportunity, yes, and Michael looked like the most harmless man she'd ever met but there was something wrong. Something was wrong with Regalis.

It wasn't something that had happened instantly, but there was something. The cutting for one thing, she wanted to know more, what on Earth had happened to make him start doing _that_? She knew people didn't always know exactly _why_ but something must have happened and she was worried about him and wanted to help but he won't let her.

There was also the fighting, he had only done it once since the bar but that was only when Evie's in sight, how often did he get into a fight when she wasn't around and hide the bruises from her?

Plus he was always so tired, ever since that first kiss. Was it her? Was _she_ weighing on him? But then he looked happier since they started...whatever the hell it was they're doing. Except for his exhaustion. Although she would see him one day and he'd be absolutely _fine_ then a few days later he'd be exhausted again and then a few days later he'd be fine. Was something happening every few days? Was he doing drugs? Maybe it was the cutting?

Or maybe he was just ill - a cold or something.

Maybe it was a bad illness, and he hadn't told her.

She didn't want him to die.

But she brushed it off. Regalis wasn't ill. She was being stupid, over reacting.

But...

What if?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Regalis, two hours later, jogged into the library. He was grinning that amazing grin of his and was holding his sketchbook.

"They gave me the slot!" He laughed. As soon as Evie realised what he'd said she grinned.

"Wow! Congratulations, you deserve it!"

He laughed then bent over, out of breath. "_Two paintings_," he said, "Two paintings to start off my career."

Evie laughed and hugged him. He hugged her back, properly but after a minute there was a cough and Evie quickly untangled herself from Regalis and smiled at Steve who's eyes were narrowed, and he looked distraught. Evie couldn't understand _why_, it was just a _hug_.

"Evie can we talk in private please?" Steve asked, Evie shrugged glancing at Regalis.

"I'll go look at...books."

Once Regalis was gone Steve turned to Evie, "Evie _please_ tell me if something is going on between you two?"

Evie sighed, "Steve we've had this argument a million times. That kiss was over a month ago and it hasn't been repeated!" Evie lied convincingly.

"That wasn't _just_ a hug Evie!"

"What?"

"I've seen you hug hundreds of people and _that_ wasn't just a hug. It was...the way you hug _me_."

"What, you've _seen_ me hugging you?" Evie asked raising her eyebrows in genuine question.

"No, but it's not hard to tell. Please Evie, I love you but something's been wrong for a while now. If you want Regalis I let you go." He looked over her shoulder not wanting to look her in the eye as he spoke, "I don't want to. I mean that would be the worst thing I could ever imagine, but I'd rather not be lied to all the time." He finally looked her in the eye and she could see his eyes shining with unshed tears that he refused to let loose in public.

"I'm not lying Steve. _Please_ believe me!" Evie plead.

"I love you Evie, ok?"

"I know. I love you too Steve. But Regalis and I are friends, just like Mycroft, just like Sherlock, _just like Irene_."

"I know." Steve sighed and bent down to kiss her, "I'll leave you to celebrate his...achievement. See you tonight?"

"Yeah, I might be late though."

Steve sighed but nodded and left the library.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Later, when Evie's shift was finished she decided to force Regalis to celebrate properly by buying some Champaign from a shop. She went round to his apartment.

When he answered the door, and saw the glass bottle in her hand he started, "Evie, you didn't-"

Evie just shushed him and muttered, "I wanted to. Now, where are your wine glasses?"

He sighed and motioned for her to come in. "Sure, in the glass cupboard."

As she pushed past him and into the living room, she stopped.

"Did you...?" She muttered, her breath taken.

On the wall - the _largest_ wall - was a painting. Of a golden city bathed in the light of millions of stars above. There was a bridge - above that were the crescents of two planets.

"Yes."

Regalis padded in behind her, and took her waist in her hands. He kissed her neck, then took her hand and showed her the smaller details. A group of five people riding six legged horses – all with different coloured capes flowing behind them. How sea of the space from the city never ended. How beautiful it was.

Evie stood, staring at it. Regalis murmured in her ear, "Do you want me to get the glasses?"

She nodded mutely as Regalis walked out. She took a step closer to the wall. She ran her finger along the city line, along the bridge and pressed her thumb into the five horse riders.

Regalis came back in, and handed her a half full glass.

Evie smiled. "To your career in art,"

He laughed. "To my career in art." They bumped glasses and took a sip. It tasted good.

Regalis then put his down, sat on the couch and motioned for her to join him. She smiled and sat down, as he dug out his sketchbook.

"When, I was there, the man who was Michael's father – Gregory I believe his name is – said that he liked this one the most." He flicked through the book, until he arrived at a page.

He flipped it round so she could see it. On the page was a sketch of Evie herself, standing on a beach, her hair flowing out to the side.

Evie smiled at him. "You're amazing, you know that?"

He looked surprised. "You're the first person to say that."

Evie smiled honestly up at him then kissed him on the lips.

First he seemed marginally surprised - then he relaxed and put the sketchbook to one side.

Regalis pushed her back onto the couch, his arms caging her in _him_.

Evie ran her hands through his hair, her thumb running over his cheekbones.

Regalis then suddenly stood up, and pulled her up with him. He pulled her onto his lap, so he was straddling him. Evie slipped his shirt over his head and kissed his neck. She sent a glance at his wrist where there was a new looking cut. She pulled his wrist towards her face and kissed at it, Regalis smiled softly and Evie took off her shirt.

"Evie, are you sure?" he asked. She looked him in the eyes, his pupils almost full blown. She knew she should feel guilty but why exactly? She didn't understand, this felt so _good_ why is it seen as such a _bad_ thing?

She kissed him on the lips and muttered. "I have never been so sure."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As Regalis curled his body up against hers. Evie picked up her phone and set an alarm for an hours' time, then allowed herself to sleep.

When she woke to the sound of the alarm, she could feel Regalis' breath on her neck. He had his arm around her waist, holding her tight.

Evie yawned and he suddenly snorted, making Evie burst into laughter. She felt him shift slightly behind her. "Huh?" He asked quietly.

"Wake up, lazy bones."

"'M not lazy." He muttered, and then buried his face into her lower neck.

She laughed and turned over, so she was facing him.

He opened one bleary eye and smiled. "You're so beautiful." he muttered.

She kissed him, on the forehead, then brushed her nose against his in an eskimo kiss.

He laughed and opened the other eye as Evie sat up. "I'm gonna make some pancakes."

"Pancakes?"

"I want this to be a proper morning after. So pancakes."

"Right. What are pan-cakes?"

Evies eyes widened, "You've. _Never_. Had. _Pancakes_?"

"Can't say I have."

"Alright, up you get gorgeous." she patted his chest.

"I would, but it appears I cannot move my legs."

Evie pouted but untangled her legs from his and she slipped out of his bed and put on one of his t-shirts. Regalis watched her go in wonder for a moment.

This was turning out to be the best day her had ever had in his entire long life, so much so that he was seriously considering forgetting about his plans and just spending his time on Earth, with Evie as Regalis. But he couldn't do that. They would get their time together as King and Queen of Midgard.

So he slipped out of bed, pulled on his dressing gown before following her out of the room. She stood over the breakfast bar mixing some strange looking pale concoction, "Pass me the milk." She ordered, he did just that passing it over her shoulder and kissed at her neck.

Evie grinned and put the milk down turning to put her arm around his neck and kissed him. "C'mon if we do that again you've never gonna get to try pancakes." Evie laughed.

"I don't mind." Regalis grinned against her mouth and Evie rolled her eyes.


	17. Leonardo, the all round Extraordinaire

"Hi, Evie!"

Evie turned, surprised to hear the voice she knew so well from University.

"Leonardo!"

He grinned. "How many times do I have to tell you, call me _Leo_!"

Evie laughed and shrugged. "That's how you introduced yourself, that's how I remember you."

"Technically I introduced myself as the one you'll want to shut up at some point."

Evie considered. "That's not a name! Anyways, how comes you're in New York?" She put on a fake-y, over the top New York accent when she said the last two words.

Leo laughed. He always was an easy person to be with – he would laugh at every joke, even if he didn't find it very funny, just to make sure no-one's feeling were hurt, and never judging, but always seeing. He saw and he understood then he put it into words, when others could not.

"Well, a publisher wants to actually publish one of my books!"

Evie's eye's widened. Leo was a writer, an amazing one, but he could never find a good enough subject. He just wanted to write about things he'd done, the emotions he saw. "Wha, really? Congrats!" She opened her arms for a hug and he grinned and hugged her back – que Regalis.

Leo pulled back and motioned to Regalis, who was standing a little awkwardly, waiting to be acknowledged. "Evie?" He asked glancing curiously towards Leo.

"Oh, Leonar- _Leo_, this is Regalis. He's a regular to the library and a good friend."

Leo stuck out his hand for Regalis, who took it. They were both studying each other – Evie could tell this may not end well for everyone.

"Regalis, this is Leo, writer and all round extraordinaire. I know him from uni."

Leo let go of Regalis' hand and said, "Well, when I was in uni."

Regalis' eyes arched. "You dropped out?"

"Yep. It was _boring._"

Regalis nodded. "Fair enough." Evie looked between them. Leo was a little taller than him, but Regalis was obviously stronger and more built (while Leo wasn't weak, he was quite lanky anyways).

There was a pause. Before Leo broke it with a, "I have a copy of the book in my backpack. Wanna borrow it?"

"Course I do!" Evie grinned. "Wouldn't be a proper friend if I didn't."

Regalis frowned slightly at Leo. Evie could tell he was beginning to dislike Leo, but she couldn't figure out why - Leo was just one of those people it was hard to dislike.

Leo started rummaging in his backpack. He pulled out a tiny notepad before eventually pulling out a large pack of paper, tied with string, obviously yet to be bound and printed.

"This is the final version before they start printing. Sorry, it's got a couple of notes in it."

Evie took it from him, and glanced at the cover: "Living in the Safe House that Never Existed by Leonardo Skye." She muttered. "I can't believe it! I knew you were gonna get published one day."

He grinned. "That was the plan!"

Regalis motioned with his hand. "Can I please see it?" Evie nodded and handed it to him. He opened it and started reading. Both left him to it.

"So, how long you in New York for?"

He shrugged. "They want me to have some meeting with the cover designer." He tilted his head. "Not sure what for. Most I can offer is what colour I want my name to be!" Evie laughed, and Regalis looked up briefly before turning back to Leo's book. "Hay, you remember Jordan Scarlett?"

"The guy in our halls? The one who died?"

"Yeah, well, I dedicated the book to him."

Evie stared.

"You weren't even friends!"

"No, but I felt like he needed something. You know his parents abused him as a kid?"

Evie fell silent. "I didn't know that."

"Nor did I, not till a day before he was gonna kill himself and he told me. Not sure why it was me."

Evie looked up at him. "You're a good listener."

He grinned. "If I can shut my mouth long enough!"

Evie nodded in agreement, laughing. Regalis then suddenly snapped the book shut and handed it back to Evie.

"I read the first few pages. It's very good, definitely worth publishing."

Leo grinned. "Thanks, man. Uh, what do you do for a living?"

"I'm a painter."

"Any good?"

Evie grinned and said, "He's got works in a gallery, you know!"

Leo grinned. "Awesome! Anything with you I can see?"

Regalis hesitated before pulling out his pad; he flicked through some pages before showing him the one of Evie on a beach. Leo's widened and glanced towards Evie and back at the page. Evie was blushing. "Wow man, awesome."

"Thank you."

They talked a while longer (Regalis stalked off to some couches, a book that he'd had when he came in he now read) before Leonardo said he was going to go visit Sherlock at the school (they'd arranged it beforehand, but Sherlock hadn't told Evie that Leonardo was coming).

Once Leo had left, Evie sat down, realising that Leo had left his notebook behind.

Well, he wasn't Regalis - he wouldn't mind if she looked, right?

So she did.

There were only three pages used – nothing interesting, just scribbles and plot and names that meant nothing to her (and a number in it that she was sure was a phone number – and in what _might _have been a woman's handwriting).

Not quite what she was expecting, anyways.

She put it in her pocket deciding to give it to him later and went to see what Regalis was doing.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Leo managed to call down a taxi. Five minutes later he realised that he'd left his notebook at the library. There wasn't anything private in it (apart from the woman he met at the writers convention's number), and a few minor plot details and character names. He trusted her enough not to mind if she read any of the stuff inside of it.

They eventually arrived at the school. He thanked and paid the driver before walking into the school. He was early and it was during a lesson so the school was eerily quiet and made Leo grin thinking about his own time in Middle school. He had been the class clown; he hadn't meant to be, but whenever he said something he either ended up accidentally insulting someone (minimally, of course. He wasn't hardwired to hate people) or rambling to the point that the teacher had to shut him up, which the class always found funny. He always had inventive ideas for pranks, too, but he never wanted anyone to get hurt from them.

He wasn't actually sure where Sherlock wanted to meet him so he just wandered around for a while, observing, until he saw a group of boys in the corridor laughing. After a second he heard another voice yelling and crying for help.

"Oi!" Leo called out, they turned saw him and started running.

Leo ran towards them but they were gone too quickly, he sighed and turned to try and locate where the yelling was coming from.

"Hello?" he called out.

Silence. "Is someone there?" a young voice called, he sounded scared. Leo found the right locker and frowned at

"Yeah, gimmie a minute, do you know the combination of this locker?"

"13 90 42."

Leo nodding knowing the person couldn't see him and opened it up.

The young boy inside the locker sighed in relief as Leo helped him out. He was quite small with dark hair and green eyes hidden behind glasses, there was a distinct bruise on his cheek, "Thank you!"

"No problem kid, what's your name?"

"Charlie."

"Charlie, who were those idiots?"

Charlie shrugged and looked down, "I didn't see them."

Leo rose an eyebrow, "Yes you did. Even if you didn't see them this time, you know who they were." Charlie shrugged again refusing to look Leo in the eye, "Well I'm not a teacher here so I don't think I can do much, have you tried actually talking to any teachers?" Charlie shook his head, "Do you know a teacher Sh- Mr...uh...Browning?"

Charlie frowned in thought before nodding, "Sherlock?"

Leo rose an eyebrow, knowing teachers first names was like a precious secret when he was in middle school, "You know his first name?"

"He doesn't like being called Mr Browning." Charlie explained, "It's either Mr Holmes or Sherlock."

Leo laughed; he shouldn't be surprised at that, "Well, I know Sherlock quite well I think he can look after you. And he _will_, he hates bullies as much as I do. More so. And you know what? Sherlock knows the Avengers!"

Charlie shook his head, "I can't tell. I'll be a tell-tale!"

"It's ok to be a tell-tale. If someone robbed your house and you saw them, you would tell the police wouldn't you?" Charlie nodded slowly, "This is the same thing ok?"

Charlie nodded again, "Ok.

Leo grinned and ruffled his hair, "Alright kid, what class are you meant to be in?"

"English."

"I'll go with you so you don't get a tardy. Do you still get them? Tardies?" Charlie nodded and led Leo toward the right class room.

Leo asked for directions to the music room and Charlie gave them diligently before they reached his classroom, Leo knocked on the door and when the teacher looked over he opened it up.

It was an older female teacher with a mean looking frown, she glared down at Charlie and up at Leo. Leo sent her his most charming grin and saying, "Hello Ma'am. My name's Leo, I just asked Charlie here to help me out and lost track of time," he lied, "It's my fault his late please accept the deepest of apologies and not blame him." His voice as laced with a hint of mocking but he grinned sincerely at her, well almost sincerely.

The teacher frowned but nodded motioning for Charlie to go sit down, "Are you a relative of his?" she demanded.

"Nope," He shrugged, "I am friend of Mr Browning though. Charlie was just helping me around the school."

"You're not meant to be in the school without a visitor's badge."

"I'm not? Woops sorry," He didn't sound particularly apologetic, "Where can I get one?"

"Main office."

"I'll go do that then. Thanks for the warning Ma'am." He winked at her and she sent him a disgruntled look, he glanced over at a giggling class and sent a horrified look to Charlie pointing at the teacher making the class laugh some more.

"Mr Leo I'd appreciate it if you left now."

Leo held out his hands in surrender and bowed to her, "Apologises again Ma'am." With that he grinned at the class before leaving.

"Alright, alright! Settle down!" the teacher yelled at the class, Leo grinned and went to the music room, he couldn't be bothered with a badge, he'd probably have to _sign_ things.

When he knocked Sherlock looked over and grinned motioning for him to come in, "Class!" Sherlock announced as Leo walked in, "This is my good friend Leo, he's come to New York for a few days and said he'll help me out today."

"I did?" Leo frowned trying to remember agreeing to this as the class laughed, Sherlock shrugged.

"Not in so many words but you still play guitar right?"

"I haven't lost my ability if that's what you mean."

"Can you play the class a few songs and show them how?"

"Sure." Leo threw his bag across the desk and put his coat next to Sherlock's as Sherlock handed him a guitar and grinned at the class who just stared up at him, some of them genuinely looked curious, most looked bored and there was one student that kept twitching.

He had two lessons with Sherlock introducing him and going round, helping some of the kids with chords.

Leo grinned to the small group of guys who had surrounded him as he taught them how to play the guitar (or at least, attempt to. He could tell they didn't care even a little). He showed them the chords and then how to play the basic tune they were supposed to learn.

He watched as Sherlock spoke to another group, he suddenly remembered something, then laughed. One of the boys asked what he was laughing at.

Leo grinned. "Well, I remember when Sherly was in-"

"You call him Sherly!?" The boys laughed.

Leo laughed with them. "Well, no, and yeah. He always hit me when I did but then I'd batter him anyways." A lie, but they didn't know and started laughing anyway.

"Anyway, when me and Sherlock were in uni this one time he had a girl over, right, so he told me to clear out for the night."

One of the boys giggled and said, "Did he get laid?"

Leo grinned. "Well, you see, I made sure he didn't. Hours before I was supposed to leave, I went out and bought a load of 'naughty' magazines-"

The boys started laughing _really_ loudly at this point, the class looked around but they ignored the rest of the class.

Leo laughed and said, "Yeah, alright guys. Anyways, I bought them, then printed out a load of pictures of this other girl who Sherlock's 'date' would know, cause she lived next door. I cut out her face, and glued them onto the magazines. I put one on his bed, another on the couch under a few other things. Bit later, I leave, but I decide to only go to my mate's house a door down. About half twelve, I just hear this really, _really_ loud scream so I run out, and there's Sherlock's date holding this magazine with the girl's face on it, the one I put _on the bed_, and Sherlock's just there stammering while she just calls him a perv and storms out down the halls!"

At this point, Sherlock had heard the laughing of the boys and had come over to make sure Leo wasn't doing something stupid.

"What you all laughing at?"

"Well," Leo started, "Remember that time in uni where you had that girl over,-"

"Oh God, you told them about the magazine thing?!"

"Yep!" Leo laughed at his friend who was standing trying to look cross but was trying to hold back laughter.

"You know she slapped me for that?"

The boys laughed, and Leo replied, "She did? Even better!"

Sherlock laughed with the guys. He was _long_ over it, and he hadn't really liked the girl that much anyways.

Soon afterwards school ended and Sherlock turned to Leo, "Thanks for that mate, sorry, I know you weren't expecting it."

Leo shrugged, "No problem, I had nothing else planned." Before Sherlock could reply there was a knock on the door and Charlie walked in.

"Charlie!" Leo greeted cheerfully, Charlie nodded shyly at Leo. Sherlock frowned glancing between them and then sent a concerned look when he noticed Charlie's bruised cheek.

"You two know each other?"

"We met earlier." Leo explained, "I assume you here to talk to Sherlock about that right?" Charlie nodded and Leo really felt like he needed to remind Charlie to use words but resisted, he could tell Charlie was a shy boy, "Do you want me to leave or stay?"

"Stay please."

"Okay," Leo dropped into a chair and Sherlock did too sending Leo and Charlie a curious look.

After a few minutes Charlie started to tell Sherlock how he's being bullied and who's doing the bullying, Leo could see Sherlock getting more and more concerned and angry.

Eventually Charlie got to today when Leo helped him and convinced him to tell Sherlock and Sherlock nodded, "Charlie well done for telling me, I promise you that I'll get this sorted and _stopped_. Do your parents know?" Charlie shook his head, "It would be much easier if I tell them and technically I should but I won't if you don't want me to." Charlie shrugged, "Charlie I'm sorry but I'm gonna need a proper answer from you."

"You can tell them."

"Alright, I'll call and see if we can arrange a meeting, how are you getting home now?"

"I usually walk."

"Are you ok with that because I can give you a lift today if you want?"

Charlie shook his head, "No thank you."

"Alright," Sherlock nodded, "You go home I'll sort everything out but I'll keep you in the loop ok?"

"Ok. Thank you Sherlock. Leo."

"No problem," the two men smiled at Leo and watched as he left.

Sherlock turned to Leo, "Thank you for making him tell me, I'd suspected it for a while but without a confession or any proof I couldn't do anything about it, catching them is quite hard."

Leo shrugged, "I hate bullies. They don't deserve anything." Sherlock nodded in agreement.

After getting a few things sorted to help out Charlie the two men went back to Sherlock apartment, "Where are you staying by the way?" Sherlock asked.

"Rosewood hotel."

"Can you cancel your payment or whatever? We have a spare room now Evie's moved in with Steve so we have a spare room,"

Leo grinned thankful, "That would be great, that hotel is bloody expensive, you have pay by night so I just won't pay tomorrow."

"We can go grab your stuff now if you want?"

"That'd be great. Thank you. So first name bases with _Captain America_?"

Sherlock laughed, "Yes, but also on first name bases with _Tony Stark_. Driving his car."

Leo tensed in the seat and looked around, "What?"

"He got bored with it so offered it to me."

"Whoa. I wondered how you managed to afford such a nice car." He grinned cheekily at Sherlock who rolled his eyes.

After they collected his stuff and went back to the apartment Mycroft and Irene were already home and they looked surprised to see Leo.

"Did you seriously forget to tell _anyone_ I'm coming?"

Sherlock shrugged sheepishly, "Sorry."

"So what are you two doing for your birthday in a few days?"

"Nothing planned really just going out for lunch and having a film day with the girls." Mycroft answered, "You're welcome to join us if you're still here?"

"I should be thanks." He grinned at them.

They made coffee and just chatted, Leo explained what's gonna happen with the next few day with his publisher.

Evie turned up a few hours later, "I thought you didn't live here?" Leo asked her, "Cause if you do, I've taken your room sorry."

Evie grinned, "Don't worry, just came to return this," he handed him the notepad which he took thankfully.

"Did you read it?"

"Some of it yeah, you have some great ideas, the one with the couple in space, have you actually written it?"

"Nope, I had been thinking about it but let's see how this publishing goes first yeah?"

Evie laughed and sat down in her usual place; Even though she doesn't actually live here anymore she comes over enough to still have a usual place.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"_Happy birthday_!" Evie squealed a few days later, running into the flat, she looked around with a frown before catching Mycroft in the living room and pulled him into a hug and a kiss on the cheek, "Happy birthday Croft."

"Thank you Evie." Mycroft laughed. "Sherlock's in his room before you ask."

"Thanks." Evie kissed his other cheek and left the kitchen running into Sherlock's bedroom without knocking and pulled him into a hug. "_Happy birthday Sherly_!" Evie squealed.

"Thank you Evie." Sherlock squeaked struggling to breath under her squeeze. She kissed his cheek and pulled away. "You do realise I'm naked right?"

Evie's eyes widened, glanced down then quickly back up with her eyes even wider, "Oh. I did _not_. I'll be out in the living room."

"You do that." Sherlock laughed knowing this should be awkward but it happens to often to be embarrassed, Evie really needs to learn to knock. "I'll get dressed."

Evie nodded awkwardly and turned to leave the room closing the door behind her. Once she was outside she laughed and went into the living room sitting down on the sofa.

"What's up?" Leo asked, his publisher deal was done yesterday but he decided to stay in New York for another day for the twins birthday.

"Just saw a naked Sherlock."

"Of course you did," Mycroft muttered joining them both. "You know fists are also used to knock with yeah?"

Sherlock joined them a moment later and smirked at Evie. "You look different Sherly."

"I'm told clothes do that to a person."

"Ah. That's probably it then."

"Probably." Sherlock chuckled and plonked ungracefully beside Evie. "So what'd you get me?"

"You know I'm not giving it to either of you until dinner. You ask every year."

Sherlock scowled, "Meanie."

"Love you too." Evie grinned. "So the big 2 5, how do you feel? Quarter of a century guys!"

"Hey, you've only got 2 weeks." Mycroft smirked.

"Whoa you guys are getting old!" Irene laughed joining them.

"Alright you June baby!" Evie glared at her, Irene shrugged with a smirk. Rolling her eyes Evie stood up, "Look I gotta go grab your present's from their hiding place, run a few errands."

"The lunch reservations at one." Mycroft reminded her. "Don't forget."

"I won't, I'll be back in time. Don't have too much fun without me."

"See you later Evie." Sherlock grinned at her and Evie bent down to kiss his cheek again.

"Happy birthday sexy." She did the same to Mycroft, "Happy birthday handsome."

Evie walked straight to Regalis', it was a warm spring day just before noon so she walked slowly enjoying the warmth.

She had – With Tony's help – made the brothers each a square black box which looked like a simple cube of marble but with voice recognition to open and it could hold their most prized possessions.

She had then asked Steve to help her with the drawings on them, which had both Sherlock and Mycroft's name's written on their respective box in bubble writing and various pictures around it, but Steve hadn't had the right paint to paint on the box, so she took it to Regalis knowing he would have the right paint and he did painting in the faint lines Steve had drawn with a white pencil.

But they had still been wet the night before so she left them there promising to collect them the next day. She hadn't given him a specific time so he probably didn't expect her for a while but he shouldn't mind.

She made it to his apartment in double the time it should have taken due to slow walking, but she was in no rush. She had taken the entire day off for the twin's birthday and none of the Avengers expected her around.

She knocked and waited but there was no answer, assuming he was out, possibly at the gallery she let herself in using the key hidden behind the fire extinguisher. She wondered if he'd give her a spare key. She was at his apartment enough.

Walking into his apartment felt strange, this was probably the first time she's been here alone. She was certain he wouldn't mind, she's seen it all now anyway. As long as she doesn't sneak a look at his drawing pad, which he always kept with him anyway, especially if he's at the gallery.  
She went to the small corner of the room where all his art stuff was set up; the two small boxes were sat on the floor beside the canvas.

Poking lightly at it she confirmed it was dry, she glanced at her watch she saw that it's only 11:30 so she still had an hour before she had to do anything. So she left them where they were and made herself a drink and sat down, she looked around, what was the couch even pointing at without a TV?

She thought about previous birthdays, it was always a laugh and a nice relaxing days, when they were in middle school Mycrofts parents would throw a party or something along those lines, when they got to high school they would go to one of their houses have a sleepover while watching films – which although was a normal weekend for them it always felt special somehow – and eventually they moved out to college, they got a flat together and did the same thing every year it had just become a tradition. Especially after Mycroft parents disowned him, and the Sherlock disowned them it just became more special for them both.

Evie shook her head before the thoughts became depressing and remembered that one year when Maggie forced them to come back to Portland for that week and she'd spoil the brothers but leave the four alone for their tradition.

Evie grinned at that thought and wondered what else she needs to do, she was certain there was something, collect the presents and go to the restaurant by just before one she'd be fine. Oh she also needs to _wrap_ the presents. Putting her drink down she started to look around wondering if Regalis has any wrapping paper hidden anywhere. She found scissors, sellotape but no wrapping paper.

She decided to try his bedroom, she didn't think he'd mind her going in there; she had spent time in here already enough times. She grinned at that but shook it away before she got distracted and went into his bedroom stopping just inside the doorway.

Inside was a man, he was sat his back to the door, crossed legged on the floor where the mat should be but instead were ruins drawn onto the floor. He had long raven hair flowing down his back; it looked like he was wearing strange green and gold clothes with a green cape.

Evie stepped backwards in shock barely stopping herself from swearing out loud, that didn't stop much mental cursing. She couldn't see his face. She quickly, silently stepped closer to him he hadn't reacted to her entrance so slowly she walked around him to the front of him and gasped falling backwards onto the bed.

She knew this man; she had seen news reports and pictures all over for almost a year now. Pictures, heard descriptions, but never seen him in person until now.

_Loki_.


	18. Loki's Escape

**AN: Sorry! Only just realised it's Friday! Warning: Mentions of Self Harm.**

**We're going back to the past:**

It hadn't been hard to break out of Odin's prison. In fact, it had been embarrassingly _easy_.

All he had needed to do was to ask Na'qut for help. That had been the difficult part – involving no less than ten Asgardian, four Kalulra and one human death. But all of them were necessary.

Contrary to popular belief, Loki Lauyefson did not _like_ killing. He did not _like_ taking lives. He did it because he had to – because there was no other way.

So once he was broken out, once he was _free_ of the spell that kept him from his magic, he used Na'qut's assistance to teleport him to earth. That had been the four Kalulra deaths needed to propel a demi-god across space to Midgard.

As soon as solid ground was found beneath his feet he collapsed, sinking to the ground – he was so tired he was ready to pass out. He opened his eyes. All he could see was grey of the sky and the flash of something else. He couldn't remember its name.

_Rain_! It was raining!

Where was he? He could be _anywhere_ on Earth – and he didn't know Midgard well at all.

But then there was a voice. Big, strong, male – his first thought was Odin, and panicked – had Odin found him so quickly? Come to take him back to Asgard to rot in the prison again?

No. There was a man. A _human_ man. He was blonde, strong looking and most certainly _not_ Odin.

He yelled something but Loki couldn't understand it. On some level he knew what this man was saying – but he couldn't piece it together in him mind. He was exhausted. The amount of energy needed to take him to Midgard without the Bifrost or some other way of teleportation such as a Fu'ratt – Binding – bracelet was immense. A human would have died from exhaustion. A demi-god would, too, if he didn't have four nicely energetic Kalulra on hand to use up before he was even needed to use his reserves of energy.

The man yelled something else. Loki hoped it wasn't an officer of the law. That would be a bad start.

And with that last thought – he passed out.

When he came to, he was warm – at least, that was the first thing he noticed.

It wasn't often he was warm. That had started a while back when he found out about his Frost Giant heritage and he allowed himself to have those powers, but he is capable of being warm. It just took a lot of heat for him to feel it. That was found out quickly by Thanos.

He made a noise. He didn't mean to, but he did.

Then someone laughed. It was an annoying laugh.

He realised he was lying down, curled up in a ball with covers over him, weighing him down. He tried to sit up, but he couldn't. Panic heaved his heart – was he restrained? Maybe he had been Odin after all.

He tried to move again – but found he still couldn't. His eyes flew open wanting to know his location.

First they found an off-white wall. Then a man.

It was the man who had called out to him. Up close, he could see he was roughly good looking, but was obviously in his late forties. His hands were on his lap and Loki could see they were littered with scars. A fisherman's hands.

Loki looked around the room. A bookcase in the corner, with a framed photo on it. There was a bedside table next to the bed he was lying on, and a chair in the opposite corner to him with the man sitting on it, reading a book. Loki couldn't figure out what the title of the book was, though he could read it.

He man said something, but again he couldn't understand. He let out a growl of frustration – he wanted to hear! He wanted to _understand_!

This was a side effect, he realised, one that that Na'qut had not told him about. Loki hoped to the Allfather it's not permanent.

There was a creak at the door – Loki's eyes flew over to it. There stood a woman, black in hair and glittering eyes but kind with her smile. She crouched down by him.

Was she regarding him as an infant? He, Loki of Asgard, an _infant_?

No – no, don't make assumptions.

"Hello, dear." She said. He could understand! _Finally_, yes!

He frowned. He wanted to reply, tell her to go away and leave him alone. But he couldn't, his mouth felt as if it was bound.

She was saying something again. "... fright! Are you hungry?"

He tried to speak, but he couldn't. He nodded. Oh, so now he could move! Finally!

He tried moving his hands again. He could, but only to a certain degree. So he wasn't bound, his body is just exhausted and healing.

She smiled kindly at him, then said something to the man. Loki noticed the ring on her finger – a ring similar to the mans. Were they married?

She left again as the man smirked. He said something. Loki couldn't understand it.

He hated this! He was being treated as an infant! He couldn't understand! Nothing made sense! Who were these people? Why where they acting so kindly to him? Were they plotting something?

He felt helpless and that is terrifying. They could do anything to him right now and he cannot fight back.

He let out another noise of frustration, and the man laughed again. Loki made a noise to tell him not to, but he only did it again.

Loki wanted to tell him to shut up – but he couldn't.

The woman came back in a few moments later with a bowl and a plate. She set them down on the bedside table and slipped her hand in between the pillow and his head to push it up. He made a groaning noise and then used his arms to push himself into a sitting position, leaning against the headboard. He took a moment to rest his body which screamed in pain.

She laughed. "Okay, then, you want to feed yourself?"

He then felt a flare of anger. Of course he did! "I am not a child." He murmured. Then he realised he said it out loud and grinned. Now, communications where back up and running!

She nodded. "I know that, dear, but you were pretty out of it just before."

He nodded and moved his arms from under the cover to eat the soup, the cover slid off his chest and he felt a sudden gust of cold.

Loki frowned and looked down his body.

He was naked!

Loki yelped and the man laughed _again_.

"Sorry, but your clothes where soaking! Couldn't let you keep those on." Loki blinked, then felt himself go pink. The man grinned picked up a book with _The Subtle Knife_ written on the front. "Was gonna give you some of mine but _way_ too big for ya. I didn't look. We're both men, after all." Loki was about to open his mouth to protest when he realised he couldn't tell them he's not a _man_ he's a _God_ but that wouldn't be a good way to start off his plan would it now? He man rolled his eyes. "Grace wasn't there, if you're worried. Your clothes are over there, dying."

Loki looked over, and he saw his prison clothes on a clothes drying rack his simple white t-shirt and trousers, muddy with the ground he had first landed on. The t-shirt was made of some material – he didn't know which – that softened his magic, made it almost impossible to do a spell any more powerful than a basic telekinesis.

Loki frowned again and then he realised that these humans, who were below him, were being very kind to him. They didn't have to do this. He realised that how they found him – soaking, in white clothes and exhausted to the point of passing out. Anyone else might think him a madman.

"I am sorry. Thank you for the food and the bed." Both of them smiled at him slightly. He smiled back and took the food from the bedside. It was hot soup and toast. His stomach rumbled when he smelt it and suddenly realised how hungry he was.

The man smiled at Loki. "So what's your name?"

Loki thought for a second. He could hardly say 'Loki' that being the name of a God thus not really a likely name – so he fell back on one of the only human names he knew: "Erik."

The man smiled at him. "I'm Theodore, but please call me Theo. My wife is Grace."

Loki drank some of the soup it was the perfect temperature and tasted incredible. "What is the date?"

"3rd of January." Loki was going to ask for the year also but realised it couldn't be that long after his initial attack on Midgard, so didn't ask.

"Where am I?"

Theo frowned. "You don't know where you are?"

Loki grinned. "I'm not a madman, if that's what you're thinking."

"I never-"

"What? A man with white clothes and being passed out in a field with no recollection of where he is?" Loki laughed. "I would think myself insane."

Theo sighed agreeing silently. "You're in California State, on the outskirts of Lemoore."

"And that's in America?" Loki breathed a sigh of relief.

Theo stared. "Sure it's in America, do I sound English?"

"Well, no," Loki admitted. He'd almost finished eating his soup now. "But I've only ever been to New York and you don't sound like you're from New York."

Theo considered. "And you sound like you're from England."

Loki laughed trying to sound human. He hadn't had much contact with most humans except the Avengers. "Pretty much. I live on one of the smaller islands surrounding it." Loki hoped to the Allfather that there where smaller islands.

"Ah, fair enough." Internally, Loki relaxed. This man and his wife obviously knew nothing of him – or else, they did not know who he really was – and that they were simply being kind to a man in need.

In need. He didn't like this. He didn't like being helpless and most of all, _tired_. He must have slept for a day to regain his energy but he was still tired. He remembered why he had always hated the Kalulra: because their magic was graceless and old. It used the Old Forces such as blood and a man's energy to fuel even the _smallest_ of journeys. Let alone across realms.

Loki sighed. "I need to get out of here."

Theo put down his book. "And why is that?"

"...Because I have things to do." Theo laughed.

"Do you really feel like you could jump up and go running off? You've been asleep for _two days_! We thought you'd gone into a coma or something."

Loki frowned. "Why didn't you call an ambulance?" He remembered the phrase that a screaming woman had used when her child was dying, killed by a Chitauri. _Call an ambulance! Please! Someone help me!_ She had yelled.

Theo shrugged. "I can't really answer that. You just didn't seem like you needed one. After all, no broken bones, not a scratch on you. Plus Grace was a nurse so she knew what to do."

"I could have been in a coma." That was what it was called, right?

"We were going to check you into hospital if you didn't wake today."

Loki nodded slowly. He put down his plate and rubbed his arms.

"Can I have my clothes back?"

Theo grinned. "Sure thing. It'll be dinner in two hours. I'll shout you when it's serving." He stood up. "Feel free to read the books on the bookcase."

Loki nodded and smiled at him. "One last thing," Theo stopped just before the door, "Why are you being so kind? You could have dumped me at a hospital and be done with it."

Theo smiled sadly. "I guess you remind me of my son," Theo paused, as if debating something. "He died in Iraq last year."

And with that note, leaving Loki silenced slightly, left.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Erik! Dinner!" Loki heard Grace shout from downstairs. He was dressed (though it had embarrassingly taken him half an hour, because of how heavy his limbs were, though it had gotten easier the longer he moved) and had read almost the whole of a book called **The Magicians Nephew**. He set it down, and stood up. It took him a second to actually gain balance, but he managed to stand up and get downstairs without any proper difficulty.

He hated this feeling. Living off other people – being _helpless_ to them. Good thing it would only be for today – then he would leave. He'd go to New York, he'd track down the Avengers – then the plan would be in motion.

As he got downstairs, Grace came out of a room on his left. The hallway had three doors: one on his left, one on his right and an ajar door straight ahead. The walls where wallpapered with some floral design and the flooring where honey coloured wooden planks.

Grace was carrying something that was steaming in a glass bowl. It was skin colour, but he smiled to show that he liked it even though he wasn't sure what it was.

She smiled back and said, "Dining room is through here. Go into the kitchen to wash your hands first, young man!" He stared at her momentarily. _Young man_? He would be older in her in Midgardian years! But he had to brush it off, appear _human_. He smiled.

"Okay. Where is the kitchen?" She pointed to the door she had just come through and he smiled.

So much smiling! Even more than _Na'qut_ smiled!

He went through the doorway, into a small room with counters and some other appliances that Loki didn't know the name of. Theo was in here, presumably washing his hands, so when he was done Loki copied him and went through into the dining room.

Grace had sat down at the table and was serving. Loki stood awkwardly.

"Where would you like me to sit?" He asked. Hopefully this whole thing wouldn't be much different than feasts back home.

Grace smiled and pointed to a chair, and Loki sat. The table was for four people, and there were mats in the middle to protect it. The room was small but overlooked their garden that was illuminated with the lights of the dining room. It was night.

Grace took out another plate. "You're not vegetarian, are you?"

Loki stared for a second, trying to remember what that meant. His brain was still going slow, but he was sure it was a human word. No – it wasn't. One of Odin's friends was vegetarian (she had learnt that word and the lifestyle on her short time on Midgard – Loki didn't know why she was in Midgard in the first place, though) and it meant that she didn't eat meat.

"No."

She smiled. "You don't seem so sure..."

He grinned. "No, I am sure I am not vegetarian."

She laughed and said, "How much will you eat?"

Loki's normal answer would be, 'Not as much as Thor,' but since she didn't know who Thor was or how much he actually ate this would be an inappropriate answer. "I'll tell you when to stop?"

She smiled and nodded, and started piling food into his plate. Eventually he said stop and she handed over his plate.

Loki waited for Theo to come back through before starting. Manners. He needed to be human.

He did and sat down. Now they were all sat and Loki was about to start before both Grace and Theo bowed their heads and put their hands on the table and grasping them together.

Grace said, "Thank you Father for our food and health of Erik. Amen."

Loki just looked from one to the other. Theo grinned. "You don't say grace?"

"I - uh..." What was grace? Who was the father they were thanking their food for? Was it their literal father, the Allfather, or their God? He remembered something about humans worshiping various Gods.

Grace smiled and put some food onto her fork. "It's okay, dear."

Loki smiled and sighed. It was so difficult to appear human without knowing these things.

He started eating, and most of the meal went in silence, apart from Erik asking Loki why he was in the field in the first place, to which Loki replied "I was taking a walk when I felt dizzy." and no other questions were asked, because it must have been apparent Loki didn't want to talk.

At the end of the meal, Loki helped clear the table but made an escape up stairs before he was asked to clean the plates.

He picked up his book again, and had moved onto the sequel before there was a knock at the door. Loki shouted for whoever it was to come in.

It was Theo.

"Hi, we're gonna be going to sleep now but I know you've been planning on getting out of here the moment our backs where turned."

"That's not true, I-" But it was. He planned on leaving tonight, since most of his energy had been returned to him.

"Sure it is. You've been acting all antsy all evening." Theo sighed. "Listen, do you have anywhere to go?"

Loki thought for a second. Well, no, not really. But he knew what he needed to do and that drove him on. "No."

"Then I'll give you money and clothes. And," he held out a sheet of paper, it had a row of 10 numbers, "Our number. If you need anything do not hesitate to give us a call."

"You don't have to do that, I've already robbed you people enough."

Theo grinned. "It ain't robbing if it's given." The smile slowly faded as he took Loki's arm and put the number into his hand.

Loki sighed, he put the number into his pocket and offered his hand, to shake. "My friend, you are a good man. I am sorry about any inconvenience I may have caused."

Theo grinned, "Any time. I mean it when I say give us a call."

He took the offered hand to shake and when their hands joined; there was a rush of knowledge on both sides. Loki had opened the floodgates so he could borrow all of Theo's knowledge of everything. Suddenly he knew about T.V and films and dishwashers and how to mend a fishing net and the ending of the Harry Potter books and the wars and the deaths and the death of his son.

But at the same time, he knew that now Theo would know _everything_ about Loki. It would fade in hours, while Loki would keep Theo's information until he decided to let it go.

Theo gasped and dropped Loki's hand. "You- you're-"

"Yes. Now, I will be leaving now. Can I borrow one of your t-shirts?"

Theo nodded and muttered for him to stay there. After a minute Theo came back with a t-shirt in hand. Loki took it with a smile, but knowing that now Theo would be scared of him. He took of the prison t-shirt and replaced it with Theo's after shrinking it of course. Now, he could use his magic at full velocity.

He muttered an easy spell, and more clothes appeared. They mirrored Theo's.

He muttered another, for money. It wasn't real, but it was real enough to fool anyone on this planet.

He split it. "I hope it covers the cost of my food."

Theo took it. "This is a hundred dollars."

"Is it? Nice to know." Loki walked past a gobsmacked Theo. "I'll thank you again for the food and bed. You have been of great assistance."

Theo nodded looking absolutely astonished watching Loki go long after he had already left.

It took him a just over a day to get to New York. He hitch-hiked the majority of the way, and met some rather interesting people along the way. First he hitch-hiked off a truck driver who must of been breaking the rules by letting him hitch-hike, but he let Loki in anyways. Next off a woman, and with Theo's knowledge Loki realised that she was either very brave or very stupid to let a man into her car, alone. Next was another man who had a tent in the back seat. He was the most interesting.

When he had pulled over, and Loki climbed in and thanked him, he had asked him where he was going.

To which Loki replied, "New York." Since taking Theo's knowledge, he had accidentally started using a Californian accent. He didn't mind. It meant he got fewer questions about where he comes from.

The man laughed. "I'm Dinjis by the way." He pronounced it 'Denise'.

"Erik." They shook hands and Dinjis started driving. "You don't sound like you're from around here."

Dinjis laughed. "I'm from Latvia."

"...where is that?"

"It's in Europe. It's pretty close to Poland."

"Ah." Loki paused a second. "Tell me, what is 'mischief' in Latvian?"

Dinjis stared a second. "Uh, it's regalis, why?"

Loki smiled. "No reason. I just like other languages."

"Do you speak any others?"

Loki laughed, yes but none he would have heard of. "No, but I like them all the same."

For the rest of the journey, they sat in silence until Dinjis pulled up at a roadside diner. "Sorry, but if you're going to New York you gotta get out now."

Loki nodded. "Thank you for the lift. You are very kind."

Dinjis smiled. "No bother."

Just as Loki was about to climb out, he said, "Can I ask you one more thing?"

"Uh, sure?"

"What is God in Latvian?"

Dinjis squinted slightly. "You ask a lot of weird questions."

"Can you please answer it?"

"It's deivs." Dinjis would later piece this together.

"Thank you very much. You've been of great assistance." Loki jumped out, finally deciding on his Human name.

Regalis Deivs.

When he did eventually arrive in New York, the first thing he did was to buy an apartment. He had no idea how long he would be here for, and needed a place to stay. He created a boundary around it so Thor would not detect him should he happen to come close but it wasn't not permanent, just until he can figure out a sturdier solution.

He furnished it how he liked, using his fake money to buy real goods. It was easier than having to create the actual objects, since he didn't actually know what most of them were made of.

He got insurance, he got an identity – he faked his whole life, using parts of it that were based on his own. This took him just over two days. Hiding in plain sight – good, good.

Oh, how mad Thor would be when he found that Loki had been under his nose the _whole_ time! It was one of the things that drove Loki on when he had no desire to leave his human life.

He lastly bought a map of the area and learnt it and spoken to the mutants. That all took him another day.

With the basics done. Next he needed information. Where better to find it than in a library? He needed to know what the humans knew of him, Thor and the Allfather. He needed to know about everything that would provide him an identity.

He also needed a distraction. The plan was slow and needed time.

So he found the closest library and met Evie Rae.

She was nice. She was pretty and he found himself drawn to her. At first he thought it just because she was easy to talk to and they shared a lot in common, but later he realised he was slowly falling in love.

When he was on Asgard, he, while not exactly being feared, was not trusted. Nobody liked a sorcerer, not really. No woman had ever _properly_ looked at him, the closest any had come were those who came to the small cottage he owned on the outskirts of Asgard, asking for money in return for his own pleasure – but Evie did. Evie Evie _Evie_.

It was only a great surprise when he found out she was dating the Captain. She had inside information – the plan was tweaked. She was incorporated.

He got closer and closer to her without meaning to. He was supposed to keep his mind on the game but so often – _too often_ it ended on Evie.

The first time he'd gone to Na'qut after making it to Midgard – to bargain for the kiss daemons they had been simple and cheap – Loki had created as teleport that only he and Na'qut could use. It meant that he wouldn't be as tired every time he needed to jump across the realms. He was left was 5 or so kiss daemons.

The first he paid a Kalulra to administer to Stark, using his magic to make the man seem to be a human woman – but that was just some fun. Stark's daemon was there to cause mischief and chaos. He _was_ the God of Mischief after all.

The second was always planned for Evie. He knew that it had to be him to administer it.

Well, it didn't have to be. But he _wanted_ it to be.

And when they kissed – it wasn't like anything Loki had ever experienced. It was just pure and good and he had accidentally let his eyes slip during it. It was a minor slip up – nothing to be too worried about, she didn't seem to notice. Too busy worrying about _Steve_.

But he wanted to kiss her again. He wanted it so badly.

He loved her.

He vowed to never say it out loud – never to express his feelings for something so material and _weak_ as love.

He would only learn that it made him stronger. He wanted her to be his queen.

That was when he went to bargain for the other daemons. When he got them that was harder, the blood needed from him always left him tired and dizzy. Not to mention the lava pooling in his hands that was needed for the 'fire' of the daemons – so that they lived. The blood was needed for the daemons to know who their master is; it would only be useful for the Smoke daemons and the air daemons. For the water daemons Loki was pretty sure Na'qut took his blood for the fun of it. Luckily he didn't need many of them.

He was only passing time, in the bar, when he'd heard one man insult him. He couldn't actually be 100% sure what the man had said, but through his tone and look he could tell it wasn't anything good.

Loki chose to ignore it. The man chose not to.

This somehow escalated into a verbal fight between the two and the other's friend.

Then it because physical.

Loki, who had killed people and Frost Giants alike, knew this man was nothing compared to his skill. But it was the other man who threw the first punch – the bartender yelled at them to take it outside.

And they did. First off, Loki just took the beating. He wanted them to think they were winning. And after all, he didn't want to get his fists hurt.

And then Evie came. Why did she _think_ she could help? He was handling this fine.

They refused to back down, and called him a coward. They knew _nothing_ of him, of the pain he'd been through and the things he'd done. He was braver than both of them, for they were picking on the smaller man. Two against one.

And then he beat them up. He actually had to refrain from killing them. He would have if Evie wasn't around.

It was a great way to get rid of some of his energy that had been building up since the plan had started moving.

Evie was concerned for _him_! Concerned was a new feeling. It had been _years_ since _anyone_ had been concerned.

"Sit. Take your shirt off." He had smirked at that. He wasn't sensitive about his body – and any ways, it hardly mattered when it wasn't really his body.

She cleaned the wounds – that had stung.

But then when they kissed again? It only left him more confused.

Then there was Irene, where the third daemon went he had only daemonised her because she _might_ be useful. He hadn't wanted to get close enough to do it but she had done so. She was just an annoying child that just got in the way, made Evie _think_ about what she's going with him. But all that did was make the daemon take just a little while longer to take full effect, it shouldn't be much longer. But no matter what Evie compassion was always showing, her concern when she thought he was self-harming.

There it is again. Concern.

His plan was almost done by then, most of the daemons collected. He had gone to check on the mutants, Magneto – it hadn't taken Loki long to track him down and convince him to help him, just with the bargain of helping Magneto get stronger in his powers – and Magneto needed a while longer. He wasn't ready with his army just yet.

What Loki _wasn't_ expecting was for Evie to find out for another few days at _least_ and for him to break it to her slowly. Not like this.

Not with this absolute hate in her eyes.


	19. Smoke Daemons

What the hell is he doing here?! Has he hurt Regalis? Is this why Regalis was getting sick? Was Loki performing some form of curse on him? It sounded like Loki was muttering Latin and for the first time Evie wished she had taken Latin in school, maybe then she'd be able to gather at least _some_ of what he's saying.

"_Guterian_." He said, Evie frowned, she recognised that word. Thor has said it. It wasn't Latin then, it was Asgardian. Shit. What does it mean? Evie ran her hands through her hair trying to think. 'Double'. It means double.

But then why would Loki target _Regalis_? Because he knows her and she knows the Avengers? Why not target Irene or Mycroft or Sherlock?! At least the Avengers actually _like_ them and have met them. To her knowledge, out of all the Avengers Regalis has only met Steve so far.

No wait. He met Natasha once.

Evie paused; she needed to pull this apart and think about this rationally. Except he might come to consciousness any second, she didn't really have time to pull it apart. She should warn the Avengers.

But she didn't react; she _couldn't_ bring herself to move.

Loki would only know about Regalis through her, which means he must be watching her and that would be because she knows the Avengers. And of course he'd know about her if he just looked at the news about the Avengers.

But why on Earth would he sit in Regalis' room, seemingly _defenceless_ muttering spells?

_Seemingly_ defenceless. He could be performing some form of spell on her right now and she wouldn't even know it.

Evie didn't want to think about the obvious that was staring her in the face. But she had to.

Regalis is working with Loki. Being with her was only a decoy to get inside knowledge of the Avengers.

But that didn't matter to Evie; the world can do whatever the hell it likes. All she was worried about is why he is _here_ and where is Regalis. She wanted to call him, she had forced him to get a phone after he got the painting at the gallery encase they needed to contact him, but she didn't think she wanted to know the truth.

But she knew she should warn the Avengers but first she needed to know about Regalis so she had to call him.

***Brrinnnggg Briinnnggg***

Evie jumped at Regalis' phone ringing, she had to get him to change the ringtone. She looked around trying to locate the phone so that she can scold him for forgetting his phone, when Loki's eyes snapped open and stared right at her.

Evie felt herself be flung backwards but an unknown force and hit the wall pretty hard, until recognition entered Loki's emerald green eyes and she dropped to the floor on the other side of the room, the bed in-between them both.

"Evie? What the heck?" His voice sounded strange, his accent wasn't right **–** somehow neither English nor American.

"What do you want with Regalis?" Evie demanded, she ended the call to stop the incessant ringing and stood up with a wince, her back hurting from the impact with the wall. Loki blinked, confused. "Where he is?"

"Wha- _Oh_." he looked down at himself and realised, he is Loki. "Right, I uh..." for the first time in a long while, his silver tongue was of no use.

"Where is he? Is he hurt?"

"No. He's fine, are you ok? Sorry about that, I can't actually see where I am for the first few moments after that." he found himself unconsciously shifting into his America accent around Evie and her eyes narrowed at the change.

"You sound like him. What the hell?"

"Evie sit down and I'll explain." he tried to speak normally.

"No! You're some evil son of a bitch! _Where is Regalis_?"

Loki's eyebrow slid up and he chuckled, "I think I preferred creepy over evil,"

"_What_?"

"Are you going to sit down?" Evie shook her head so Loki sighed, she put her hand on the bedside table and it turned to water making Loki raise both eyebrows, all his items sunk to the bottom. He was glad when he noted it was just clothes, no drawing pads.

"Evie, you think _water_ is going to stop me?"

Evie's eyes narrowed, "Is that a threat?"

"No." Loki held his hands out in front of him showing that they were empty, "You would know if I was threatening you."

"Stop changing the subject! Where. Is. Regalis?"

The water table started to wobble and splash, then it begun to spin as if in a whirlpool.

Loki frowned at it, Evie was obviously scared, he felt disappointment settle in his chest. He had hoped at the very least she wouldn't be scared of him, but that she doesn't know who he is, he needs to explain, "Right here."

"_What_?"

"I am Regalis."

Evie paused, the water-table froze and Evie frowned obviously considering, "What? _No_." She shook her head and the water-table begun to whirlpool again, "That's impossible. Try harder."

"I'm sure Thor has told you that I can switch forms." Evie nodded slowly a considering look crossing her features, "Well that is what I have done."

"I don't...I don't understand." the table shape was spinning faster, almost out of control, a pair of his boxers flung out and he had to dodge them. Evie was nervous, confused and _scared_.

"I'll show you, but Evie do not move from this room, if you leave this room or summon the Avengers you will never see Regalis again, that is not a _threat_ just a warning." he paused, "Have you summoned the Avengers already?"

Evie shook her head and Loki nodded stepping back into the circle. He closed his eyes and started muttering, "_Me mutare alia. Regalis._ _Me mutare alia. Regalis._"

Evie wanted to run but she needed to understand. To know if Regalis is safe. Nothing happened for a minute and then suddenly Loki began to change in front of her eyes, first his hair seemed to shrink back into his head and turn blonde, and then his face shape just morphed in front of her eyes, and it looked _so _weird. His shoulders grew broader and slowly the rest of his body morphed slightly until eventually Regalis opened his eyes.

_Brown_ eyes.

"Regalis?"

He nodded and blinked, his eyes were green, "And Loki." He was still wearing Loki's uniform, it looked strange.

He frowned again – distantly wondering if he was beginning to get frown lines – as the floor around his feet suddenly felt wet and he realised Evie had lost her concentration on holding the water-table and allowed it to flow across the floor, Damnit, the chalk will wash off.

Evie obviously hadn't noticed and her hands kept moving around and shook her head, "No. _No_. This isn't right." she glared at him anger bubbling up inside her; she stepped towards him, around the bed, and slapped him hard across the face. "You've been _using_ me All this time?! _That's_ all I am to you? A _tool_ to get _close_ to the _Avengers_?!"

"No!" Regalis struggled to interrupt as Evie went into a full blown rant.

"I thought we had _something_ Regalis, I like you so much! I _love_ you even! But now I find out you've _lied_ to me for so _long_?! That you're the _enemy_ to my friends and the _entire world_! The man the Avengers, my _boyfriend_, are trying to _catch_?! You're the man that destroyed New York last year! That killed _hundreds_ of people? What are you planning to do now? What am _I_ here for? I haven't told you much about the Avengers so _why_ have you kept me around?! Explain Regalis please." Regalis opened his mouth to explain hut Evie wasn't finished, "I don't even know what to _think_! We made love last week Regalis! It was _incredible_! I haven't given myself like that to _anyone_ since Jacob, now I found out I gave that to the _God of Mischief_! I've read the legends! Thor's told me what's true and what's not! You _lied_ to me. Why-" Evie was cut off suddenly, her voice just disappeared, Regalis was staring at her eyes narrowed. She choked slightly, trying to talk – but not a sound came out.

"I apologise but I couldn't get a word in there." he waved his hand and Evie could speak again but she waited patiently for him to speak. "I can explain just please allow me too and I'll give you back your voice."

Evie hesitated before nodding and Regalis twitched his hand then nodded, Evie made a noise in the back of her throat and turned to Regalis, "Explain why you're _you_!" she poked his chest.

"Right," he took a second to decide which voice to use but decided on his American accent in hopes of calming Evie, even just a small amount. "Well if I came into the library looking like myself you would have summoned the Avengers immediately; _anyone_ would have so I didn't. But _you_ weren't in my original plans; I didn't know you knew the Avengers until you told me at the Café. So _yes_. I stayed friends with you so that I could gain inside knowledge of them but I quickly found out that you're careful with your words when it comes to them, at least sometimes. But when we _kissed_ Evie, I felt something I _never_ expected to feel. And you've made me feel so..._loved_. _Special_ even since the day we met. You're a phenomenon and I _couldn't_ throw this away. You broke through my walls and became my friend without even _trying_. Yes I do have an alternative plan than becoming an artist but I do not wish to hurt you."

"Too late. You've hurt me already." Evie blinked a few times, "Will people die?"

"Probably. But humans kill each other in hundreds _every day_. I do not enjoy killing but I do it when necessary. With me and you ruling, this will _stop_."

"With...us _both_ ruling?"

"Yes. You will be my _Queen_. You will rule at my side. If you so choose to. With your compassion you will help me rule."

"What about the Avengers?"

"What about them?"

"Will they die?"

Regalis hesitated, "Anyone that gets in our way will die."

"So that's a yes." Steve was the first person to her lips but she didn't say it. She sighed and he stared at her for a minute.

"Evie-"

"Shut up for a sec. I'm thinking." Regalis nodded obediently closing his mouth; Evie stared at Regalis before she started pacing.

She loves this man. That much she's certain of. But he's also some evil crazy sorcerer that kills people, but he doesn't seem that he evil. He's nice wonderful, _more_ than that. They laugh together, joke together. He's _never_ hurt her in _any _way until now and even then it's not physically. She believed him when he said Irene kissed him not the other way around, Irene had done that before to check whether or not he would cheat on her because she's insane and takes things too far. She vaguely wondered if she had done it to Steve, neither said anything, she made a mental note to ask Steve later.

Not the point, she reminded herself. Regalis was staring at her, but with _Green_ eyes, the reminder than he's _Loki_.

Thor's Brother.

Oh God. She had _sex_ with _Thor's_ brother.

She had sex with a _God_.

"Well that's new."

"What is?"

Oops. Evie stopped her pacing. "I didn't mean to say that out loud."

"Ah." Regalis nodded and fell silent as Evie's pacing started again. So now what was she going to do now?

Tell the Avengers? They'll take him away from her; she'll never see him again.

Don't tell them, people will die but she will become Queen.

Was killing people all that bad? _Really_? Well yes, these people have families but if they get in the way it's their own fault. In the end it would all get better. Evie knew she should feel worse about people dying, but in a way she didn't care.

She can stop the madness, the _wars_.

She can give more rights to Mutants, make them more _respected_, not feared. Win the fight that Magneto lost. But then that's like putting herself in magnetos place. He's the bad guy. Or is he? He just wants mutants to be more respected, he doesn't like human life.

With Loki's magic they could do it. They could win.

But he had _lied_ to her. Lied to her face. She had let him in more than she had let Steve in, both spiritually and physically.

Evie shook her head, "I can't."

Regalis stayed silent thinking that she had accidently spoken out loud again but then she caught his eye and he knew that she was speaking to him now.

"Can't what? Keep this secret or...?"

"I don't know. Are you going to keep me here or let me go?"

Regalis hesitated, "You can leave. You can do what you wish, but I cannot promise you'll find me if you return with the Avengers."

"What if I come back and I haven't told them?"

"Then _you_ will find me." Evie frowned in question but Regalis refused to give any more information, instead he stepped to the side motioning to the door, Evie hesitated once more before leaving the room. Just before she left the apartment Regalis called her name and she paused, "If it means anything, I love you too."

Evie's eyes closed, a horrible weight setting in her chest and continued out of the apartment.

She didn't go straight home, she just wandered for the next few hours all around New York, places where there were tributes to the deceased from last year's fight. The fight against _Loki_. But he's right; they can stop so _much_ if they were to rule. And while she walked she saw the bad things; the homeless in New York, a man with no left arm, a tired looking woman with a child in hand. Maybe with Loki's help, this could stop. He could heal diseases, he could get everyone food. He could bring more rights to woman; he could bring _so many things._ She would make sure he won't be too harsh. But what about the Avengers? They would die if they tried to stop him – and they would.

Maybe she could stop him from killing them, bring them round to her point of view.

Except it wouldn't work. She knew how they worked, black and white. No grey area.

This was in the grey area.

Plus there was their pride; all the Avengers had too much pride to give in against Loki.

She decided to make a pros and cons list, so she went to the nearest shop to buy a pen and note pad and then sat down on a random bench next to a stranger.

A stranger that might die if a fight happens.

He was just a random person though. You have to break a few eggs to make an omelette. And in this case a lot of useless eggs to make a fantastic omelette.

**Cons:  
People will die.  
Avengers might die.  
****New York will be destroyed.**

**Pros:**  
**We can rule incredibly, stop the wars.**  
**Share food between countries.**  
**Mutants will get more power.**  
**My friends will never have to worry about anything again, money, comfort everything will be theirs. No questions asked.**

Evie stared at the list, there had to be more. She frowned as the pen in her hand turned to water; she mentally cursed as she stopped it from soaking the paper and threw the water on to the floor around her feet. She's still shaking and kinda scared. She needed to snap out of it, so much control over her power she can't just give up on that because of one small scare. So she grabbed another pen.

"Ah Ha!"

**Pros: Power.  
**  
She sighed.

**Cons: Power.  
I will lose the Avengers (Steve) whether they live or die.  
**  
Evie sighed again.

"That's the second heavy sigh in a row." the person beside her commented and Evie chuckled glancing at him; he looked to be in his late 60's with grey hair, a wary face and bright green eyes. Loki has green eyes.

She could see by the way he sat that he was military.

"Bad day."

"Sounds like it. Would you like to talk about it?"

She shrugged, "I just found out someone that I loved and trusted isn't who I thought he is."

"Ah." The man nodded, "Happened to me once. The wife was cheating on me."

Evie felt guilt for the first time in a while hit her, she was cheating on Steve.

She loves Steve but what she was doing with Loki felt so good she didn't care that it was bad to cheat on Steve.

**Cons: Loosing Steve.  
**  
But was that a con? Was is a pro? Did she care?

"Why?"

The old man shrugged, "She found out that I'm a mutant I guess."

Evie's eyes narrowed, "Why did you tell me that?"

"Well technology of the day is incredible but I can't say I've heard of pen's turning to water before. Or stopping the water from spilling on the paper."

"Ah. Woops." Evie looked sheepish; she had forgotten that other people were around, "What can you do then?"

He smirked, "Shoot bullets from my hands."

Evie's eyes widened, "That's kinda cool."

"Not really when you accidently shoot your parents before your old enough to control it." Evie didn't know what to say but he grinned at her, "Don't worry it wasn't fatal, I just love to make people uncomfortable." Evie laughed, "What has this man done?" the old man continued.

"Literally became someone else. In every sense of the word."

"He's a shape shifter?"

She shrugged, "You could say that. But I saw him today as himself and I don't like it."

"But you like him?"

"I _love_ him."

"Then young lady,"

"Evie."

"Evie. I trust you'll do the right thing."

"I'm not sure what the right thing is." She admitted. "I mean the wrong thing doesn't feel that _bad_."

"Hence your pros and cons list, I assume. Don't worry, I'm not reading it," he added when Evie started to fold it to hide it, "But don't _just_ think about others. Think about _yourself_." with that he patted her knee and stood up.

"Wait," Evie stood up, she was a head short than him but it didn't matter, "What's your name?"

He grinned at her, "Charles Clark."

**Pros: Charles will get to live without worry.**

Evie watched him go for go a minute before sitting back down and started at her list, 6 cons and 6 pros. Damnit.

She started at the paper for another half an hour trying to think of at least _one_ more thing, hopefully a pro but nothing came to her and then she thought about what she had said.

She honestly couldn't tell if killing someone was all that _bad_. She knew it is because society tells her it is but otherwise _why_? It's the same with the fact that she's cheating on Steve, it didn't feel as if she should feel guilty. Irene had been trying to make her feel guilty over it but it wasn't working.

Maybe, just _maybe_ Regalis– _Loki_ daemonised her. She and Regalis have kissed enough times; did that mean she _wants_ it gone? Because in a way, she didn't care. She should want it gone but she felt happy and comfortable, just confused at this very moment.

The daemon doesn't change how you feel just what you do. She remembered Thor saying. Except for changing how many fucks you give. So she definitely feels this way about Regalis. Loki. Whoever the hell he is.

Thor. She's seen Thor a few times since the first kiss and various ones between that, he hasn't known or noticed. He would have, he's looking out for daemonised people.

So what if she is or isn't. It didn't matter. It doesn't change how she feels.

Sighing for what feel like the millionth time she looked down at the list and glanced at the time, it was 2 O'clock. Damnit! She's late.

She stood up quickly and ran towards the restaurant pulling her phone out as she ran, out of battery, of course it is. The day just gets worse and worse.

She got to the restaurant and ran inside; a man came towards Evie, a waiter. "Hi, sorry, I'm a bit late, I'm with a small party of people, probably under Irene Thompson?" the waiter looked through a small book before nodded and leading her to where Irene, Mycroft, Sherlock and Leo were sat around a table laughing. They all had food in front of them, eating as they talked, looking so comfortable with each other. Something Evie hasn't felt in a while. Comfortable with them.

Sighing Evie walked over to them looking sheepish, they all looked up at her looking with question and judging in their eyes and Evie smiled guiltily, "Hi. I'm so sorry. I completely lost track of time."

"Doing what?" Irene demanded.

"I found out something quite big about Regalis." She admitted.

"Worse than what you told me the other day?" Mycroft asked, she noticed him scratching at his legs.

"Uh...more dramatic at least. But still, I should have come."

"Yes. You should have."

Mycroft sighed, "C'mon. Sit down," He gestured to the empty seat between Irene and Leo, Evie sat down.

"Did you bring our presents?" Sherlock asked.

Evie shook her head, "Left them at Regalis' place. I'm sorry; I'll grab 'em soon. I could go now if you want?" She really didn't want to see Loki again so soon but hopefully he would've hidden to avoid the Avengers encase she told them.

"No, get them later." Sherlock told her, "Order something to eat."

"Sir yes sir." she saluted and looked down at a menu. Sherlock rolled his eyes apparently not finding her very funny. "How long have you been here?" Evie asked conversationally.

"We waited at the apartment for about half an hour. Then been here about 20 minutes."

They managed to relax into a discussion and ate their lunch. Evie tried to join in but she was distracted, all she could think was Loki. Loki. _Loki_!

They made their way back to the apartment to watch a film together.

"I'll make the drinks?" Irene offered.

"Beer for me." Mycroft and Sherlock both called.

"Cola please." Leo asked.

"I'll have a beer." Evie shrugged watching as Mycroft set up the DVD player and switched the TV on.

"_...Loki was spotted near Washington High School where President Xander is currently speaking. We believe the Avengers are surrounding the building_."

Everyone froze and turned towards the TV to watch the reporters speaking about Loki. A picture of Loki came onto the screen, he was in his full Asgardian outfit, he wasn't looking at the camera, Evie wondered where or when this was taken.

Sherlock reached across Evie to reach the remote to turn the volume up.

"_We're not currently aware if it is the same man that attempted to start a war in New York last year but all precautions are being taken. The Avengers have agreed to a press conference when this is over_."

Shit. Evie thought, what the hell is Loki doing now? Is this something to do with his chanting earlier?

Would he hurt the Avengers so soon after she finds out who he is? Stop her from being able to tell them until he's ready? She hated this, usually when the Avengers went on a mission and her and Pepper were usually stuck waiting at the tower, nervously pacing, Pepper would get some work down and Evie would try (And fail) to relax.

Just _sitting_. It was horrible; every time this happened she had been so tempted to tell them about her powers and go to join them, but whenever she tried her tongue suddenly felt too heavy and she just couldn't speak. So she was forced to wait. Wait for one of them to accidently find out the way Regalis found out, they'd be angry but it'd be easier than straight out telling them.

But today it's worse. Everyone out there is someone she loves and she didn't know what side she wants to win.

She knew what she _should_ choose but didn't want to.

She's in love with a crazy psychopath that wants to take over the world with her help. What is she supposed to do now?

"_In other news a woman was reportedly bitten by a zombie_..."

That pulled Evie out of her thoughts and she frowned at the TV.

Irene frowned and turned it back down, "Shit. Loki's here?" Leo asked.

"Apparently." Sherlock sighed. "We've thought he is for a while cause Tony was possessed blah blah. But there's been no way to prove it because he's been in hiding." Sherlock paused and turned to Mycroft, "Is this included in stuff we're not supposed to talk about?"

Mycroft shrugged, "Probably, but extensive circumstance's. And I trust Leo not to spread it around the internet." Leo rose an eyebrow in question, "We had to sign some secrecy thing so we can't tell people anything to do with Avengers. Except personal things." Mycroft explained quickly.

Evie sighed she needs a distraction. Get her mind off Loki. "I'll speak to the Avengers later and let you know the details?" She offered.

"Yeah good idea, Pepper might know something?"

"I'll text her while we watch the film." Evie smiled and pulled out her phone.

"Not sure I can really concentrate on a film right now," Irene muttered thinking about her friends being in danger.

"Get a boardgame out and keep the news on?" Sherlock suggested already halfway to his bedroom where Cluedo is. There were a few laughs of agreement.

**Loki was spotted? – ER**

It took a few minutes but eventually Pepper replied and Evie read the text out to the room.

**Yeah, shield called a few hours ago and they flew off. I'll let you know anything as soon as I know. I'd keep watching the news if I were you – PP**

They spent the next couple of hours talking, playing Cluedo and trying to relax but Mycroft had put the news on low and kept glancing over encase the Avengers were mentioned.

Nothing happened for a while until Evie glanced over at the TV to see Iron Man flying through what looked like fog trying to help everyone to evacuate.

She reached over to turn the volume up, "_There is what appears to be while gas filling the room, the president is out and he's safe. Iron Man, is currently helping to light up the exit and help out all of the civilians and Government officials. Along with the other Avengers_."

It cut to outside the large school where the white gas was floating out of every window. There were ambulances, police and even the army was turning up. Piles of people were running out of the exit's, almost being trampled as they ran. Parents, children, teachers. There were hundreds of people trying to run out.

The camera zoomed in on Natasha as Bruce stood by the exit helping everyone out, Thor was running through the crowd helping people that had fallen. It cut back to inside the building and they could just about see someone perched up high, bow and arrow at the ready, the commentator mentioned Hawkeye. He was wearing a gas mask.

"Where's Steve?" Evie was murmuring.

The camera kept swapping between inside and outside the building for a while, watching each of the Avengers and the progress reporting on it and commenting that Captain America was nowhere to be seen, along with Loki until finally the camera suddenly zoomed in on the stage where someone was thrown into the middle of the stage, Captain America.

Loki, in full Asgardian uniform lunged forward, a spear at the ready but Captain America just about dodged out the way and jumped into a standing position and continued fighting. It looked as if he was wearing a gas mask whereas Loki wasn't.

Evie gasped at every punch thrown, eyes glued to the screen.

Loki's hand shot up grabbed hold of an arrow that was sent towards him and then throw it back up towards where it had come from with enough force and precision that it flew towards Clint as if Loki had used his own bow.

Clint gaped and swung down off the pole he was perched on falling quickly to the ground, rolling as he landed but as he stood up they could see that he definitely injured his ankle. Exactly where Clint had been a moment before, the arrow blew up.

Clint put his hand to his ear started nodding as if he was talking to someone and the camera moved to Tony who was trying to get closer to Steve and Loki but Loki sent a bolt of energy towards him throwing him into the crowd which had gotten more scared and desperate when Loki appeared and didn't care if they were trampling Iron Man.

Steve managed to get Loki's spear from him but Loki set a well-aimed kick to Steve chest pushing him off balance and getting the spear back. Once he had enough distance he sent a bolt of energy at Steve sending him shooting across the room.

Steve didn't move and Loki jumped towards him spear at the ready, Evie gasped. Was he gonna kill Steve? Make sure she didn't have a choice?

But Loki paused, he stepped back.

Tony had managed to get away from the crowd and flew straight into Loki flying him back into the stage.

Loki jumped away from Tony as Thor landed beside him, hammer at the ready.

"Brother! Stop this madness!" Thor's booming voice made everyone jump; it was the first voice they had actually heard.

Loki smirked, murmured something unheard through the camera and suddenly disappeared. Evie felt her wrist tingle and tried to ignore it but it started itching and she looked down to see the bracelet Regalis had given her was glowing, only a little but enough.

Suddenly Loki appeared inside the room.


	20. Leo outtalks Loki & Steve is knocked out

**AN: WARNING! Mentions of Self-Harm.**

Nobody moved.

Loki looked vaguely sheepish. "Hello."

"How the fuck did you get here?!" Irene demanded with a burst of adrenaline.

"I teleported." He answered honestly glancing towards Mycroft who was slowly shifting towards the desk. He pointed the spear towards Mycroft, "I wouldn't move if I were you. Guns will be useless against me." Mycroft froze and Loki smirked.

Loki glanced towards Evie; she was staring back at him. To his pleasure it wasn't with fear, but with confusion. The others however looked terrified.

He then caught Leo's, a slight confused look coming into his eyes, but that disappeared as quickly as it had come, "Nor would I try and call for anyone." Grinning, "I think the Avengers will be a bit busy." Leo scowled and put his cell back into his pocket. "No, no, throw it to me. All of you."

Leo threw him the phone, after a moment Evie did the same followed by the twins and then the most reluctance Irene. "You break that and I'll break your face."

"Interesting threat." Loki put them down on the counter behind him, "I'm not planning on hurting any of you." He quirked his head to the side, "Yet."

"Why did you come _here_ of all places?" Leo asked conversationally, looking calmer than he felt, "How did you know about _here_? You're the God of Mischief right?"

Loki nodded, "That I am."

"If you can teleport why didn't you last time I mean at least I never saw anything on the news about it? And why did you come here, so here something must be here drawing you here,"

"What?" Loki's smirk slowly disappeared into a slightly bemused frown.

"Sorry, I'm a writer and I've watched every single known episode of Doctor Who, so I talk." Leo shrugged, "Plus my middle name is shut-up, so why did you come _here_? What drew you _here_? Why didn't you use your teleportation powers last time? As far as I can tell you seem to know everyone except me, because you looked confused when you saw me, but not them. And this exact apartment, I mean there's _millions_ of places you could have landed but you landed in a place where the people _know_ the Avengers so that's definitely _not_ a coincidence. To quote the magical man known as the Doctor: Never ignore a coincidence. Unless you're busy, in which case always ignore a coincidence." Leo grinned and turned to Sherlock, "I think we should swap names."

"What?" Sherlock frowned at Leo. While everyone turned to watch them Loki glanced towards Evie with a questioning eyebrow, Evie just shrugged.

"I'm the one making the deductions."

"Well I can see that those punches thrown by Steve did actually hurt him." Sherlock tried, "He's trying to hide it but leaning slightly on his right; Steve must have kicked him on the left leg before they came onto the stage because I didn't see that happen on the stage."

"And that bruise on his face, he was slapped earlier; I can't see Steve _slapping_ him."

Evie barely managed to keep a straight face.

"What are you two doing?" Loki demanded.

The two turned to him as if surprised he's still there. "Deducting. Read Sherlock Holmes. Good book actually." Mycroft answered.

"I _have_, actually. I particularly enjoyed the Speckled Band."

"Yo- you've read them?"

"Indeed. What do you think I was spending my time doing while my plans set into action? Twiddle my thumbs?"

"So are you gonna answer our questions?" Leo demanded, obviously not liking the banter that Loki had somehow initiated.

It took Loki a moment to work out which questions he was referring to, "I didn't need them last time. Plus I didn't plan where I was going to land. It appears I landed in a room full of human idiots. I have no idea what draw me here." he caught Evie's eye and smirked, "Now thank you for your hospitality but I must leave."

"Why don't you just teleport away?" Irene asked him.

"It takes a lot of energy."

"You can't stay for a drink? Relax. Save up your energy." Sherlock spoke up sarcasm almost dripping from his voice, "It's our birthday y'know."

"We we're just watching a film, join us if you want." Mycroft added cheerfully.

"Oh? What were you watching?" he smirked catching Irene's eye, "_Avatar_?"

Irene gasped, "_Regalis_?" She looked between Evie who shrugged and Loki who was still smirking.

Loki slyly rose a single eyebrow, "Reg-a-lis? What is it?"

Irene shook her head, "No, no. Evie?" She looked towards Evie who's eyes were wide, she didn't know how to react to this, what was she supposed to say? _Do_?

Evie shrugged looking between Irene and Loki. Loki didn't give her time to reply, he stepped forward and everyone tensed but he ignored them and continued forward watching with amusement as they parted like the red sea for him, he pulled the door open and grinned them all, "Don't try and follow me. It won't work and you may die."

With that he was gone.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Where the hell did he go?!" Tony was the first to react.

"Loki cannot teleport." Thor stated.

"Apparently he can!" Tony begun looking around where Loki was a moment ago, inside his suit JARVIS was scanning everything.

Clint limped over to them and removed the gas mask he had been wearing, "Thor, what the hell was that smoke?"

"Smoke daemons." Thor answered, "Everyone in this room was infected, including the president. We were too slow to get him out."

"_Damnit_." Clint threw the single arrow in his hand onto the floor in frustration.

"What do the smoke daemons do again?" Bruce asked coming into the large hall, he looked very green but he was under control and he went towards Steve who was lying unconscious across the room.

"Loki controls the daemon, so they will distrust anyone Loki distrusts – us – and if they see Loki they will do as he says." Thor explained. "I must go to Asgard and find out more on Loki's ability to teleport and see Na'qut about the daemons."

"Go. We'll sort out everything here." Clint could already hear the S.H.I.E.L.D jets landing around them.

Thor nodded before stalking outside so not to destroy the ceiling of the hall.

S.H.I.E.L.D agents began piling in after Thor had left, some medics ran over to Steve and the other few people that had been injured after the escape.

"The hell is going on here?" Fury demanded joining them on the stage.

Clint gave a quick description and followed Fury into the back to try leaving to find the president, agents begun to tidy up and others were attempting to round up anyone that was in the hall.

"Sir, Irene is on the phone." JARVIS stated.

Tony sighed, "Put her through..._What_?!" He demanded once her heard the noise of it connecting.

**"Loki was here."**

"_What_?!" Tony repeated but this time it was more of a shriek than an angry demand.

A few agents turned to see what had happened.

**"After he disappeared on the news he turned up here."  
**

"Any of you hurt?"

**"No. It was kinda weird. He said he didn't wanna hurt any of us yet and left. But walking instead of teleporting."**

That's seriously strange, how the hell did Loki get _there_? Why did he go there out of everywhere he could have gone. "Get to the tower." Tony ordered.

**"Is Steve ok?"** he heard Evie ask in the background and Irene repeated the question.

Tony glanced over to where the medics were checking on him, he wasn't under a white sheet so Tony took that as a good sign. "He's alive if that's what you mean." with that Tony cut off and repeated what had happened over the comm.

"Get to the apartment, see if there's anything there." Fury ordered.

"Roger that."

Inside the apartment there was nothing of use or that could help so Tony told the Avengers of this and went to the tower.

He skipped the balcony wanting to keep the suit on and went straight through the window which JARVIS opened for him. Everyone was in the room, Pepper was doing paper work, Irene was talking quietly to the twins and Evie and some random guy were talking.

The random guy made a startled noise, "Tony!" Evie stood up to face him; she looked nervous, "What happened?"

Tony didn't answer for a moment as he looked around at everyone, one by one until he nodded and his faceplate slid up revealing Tony's banged up face. "Who are you?" he asked the random guy.

"Leo." Leo answered for the first time since Evie had known him, he looked speechless to have _the_ Tony Stark in front of him.

"Leo. Right, hello. Well Loki is one hell of a son of a bitch. That's what happened."

"What about Steve?" Evie asked her voice shaking.

"Steve's alright, just unconscious to my knowledge."

"**Get them to the base."** Fury's voice ordered in his ear.

"Apparently you need to get to the base." Tony repeated to them cheerfully.

"How will we get there?" Irene asked.

"We've got a jet on the roof, I'll fly you up." Tony led them into the elevator and they all climbed into the jet, it was a bit squashed with 7 inside but Leo sat in the co-pilot, "You can fly?" Tony asked him.

"_Technically, _but I've never been in a plane bigger than three seats." Leo grinned, "But yeah I have a pilot's license. Got one when doing research with my book."

"You're a writer?"

"Yep, actually in New York to see a publisher."

"Awesome."

It didn't take long to get to the base and everyone that saw Loki had to go make a report to Fury who had arrived a few minutes before they had. The five of them were led into a boardroom where Fury sat at the head of the large 20 person table. The room was very blank with white walls and only one door behind them.

"Who are you?" Fury demanded of Leo the moment he walked into the room and the door closed behind them.

"Leo." He answered politely, his voice was shaking slightly but he seemed to be doing quite well in front of the intimidating figure of Fury, "Director Fury right?"

Fury nodded, "You were there when Loki appeared?" Leo nodded, "Why?"

"Uh I came to New York to publish a-"

"I didn't ask for your life story. Just why today?"

Leo glanced helplessly towards the twins who just shrugged; they had only met Fury a handful of times but had gotten used to his behaviour. "It's Sherlocks and Mycroft's birthday so I was spending the day with them."

Fury nodded and turned his eyes to glance over everyone in the room, "Sit." He ordered. They immediately did as they were told, Evie slightly more hesitantly that the other. "What were you all doing when he appeared?"

Nobody knew who Fury was asking directly so Mycroft took charge and answered, "Watching the news. We were watching a film before that."

"And Loki just appeared?" Fury stood completely still, his one good eye looked between everyone and they all felt as if he was reading their minds. Irene was reminded of Dumbledore and just about resisted the urge to tell Fury of this.

"Yes. About 30 seconds after he disappeared on the news."

"Did any of you feel anything strange?"

Under the table Evie touched the bracelet Regalis had given her but Fury didn't seem to notice as everyone – including Evie – shook their heads.

"What happened?"

All 5 of them took their turns in telling the story of what had happened and once they finished Fury nodded. "Can I go see Steve now?" Evie asked. Fury nodded and Evie left the room.

The moment Evie was gone Irene stood up and Fury rose an eyebrow in question, "Have you heard of Regalis?" Fury shook his head, "He's a friend of Evies," Fury opened his mouth to make a sarcastic response but Irene continued before he could, "She met him about 3 to 4 months ago. I know Evie kissed him a while ago and she's been acting a bit strange since then. He's a bit weird but we watched Avatar together. When Loki appeared he mentioned Avatar and looked at me specifically."

"You think this Regalis guy is Loki then?"

Irene nodded, "Loki can change form right? Well if I was a crazy evil super villain, I'd try and get close to someone that knows the Avengers."

Fury inclined this head slightly to the right in an agreeing motion. "I'll get some agents to check it out."

"Can I ask what you'll do? Like will you try and torture it out of him?" Irene sounded excited at even the thought of that, Leo frowned and glanced at the twins who were looking thoughtful.

"Not until we're certain that he is in some way linked to this. If you're wrong and he's an innocent man then torture won't be of help. Get to the main hall I'll get an agent to take you back to the tower."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Evie had barely left the room when at least 5 agents surrounded her, "I need to go to Steve. I assume he's in the med bay?"

"I'll lead you." An agent stated he was quite tall, lanky, with dark shortly cropped hair and brown eyes; he had a distinct looking mole just below his right eye.

"No need!" another voice piped up and Darcy grabbed Evie's arm before anyone else could.  
"Darcy!" Evie grinned happily noticing that Darcy had new layers put into her hair since the last time she had seen her.

"You know her?" The agent demanded.

Darcy nodded grinning at Evie, "Yep. We're great friends, I'll take her to the sexy Captain so you lot can continue working."

The agents looked a bit sceptical but finally nodded and let the two girls walk away. "What are you doing here today?" Evie asked Darcy once they were out of earshot of the agents.

Darcy shrugged, she was still "I was quite happily assisting Jane when everything went to shit. I've been running around trying to help with anything I can. You saw it on the news right?"

"Yeah," Evie gave a brief description of seeing Loki and Darcy's eyes widened.

"What's he like?"

Evie hesitated and glanced around, "Kinda hot."

Darcy barked out a shocked laugh. "Well he's a God. Shouldn't they all be hot?"

Evie shrugged but she was smiling. "Have you seen Steve?"

"I haven't sorry. I don't think he's speaking at the moment."

"Yeah, Tony said he's unconscious."

"Sounds about right."

When they entered the room, Evie would have just thought Steve was sleeping if not for how pale he is and the softly beeping machine at his side. Evie moved straight to his side and grabbed his hand, "Hey Steve, its Evie."

Darcy smiled, "I'll leave you two alone."

After Darcy left Evie chatted to Steve about nothing specific for at least half an hour until finally Steve's eyes slowly opened, "Evie," he muttered groggily.

"Hey Cap." Evie smiled. Steve attempted to sit up and winced, "Careful. You had a bad bang on the head." Evie warned putting her arm behind him to help him sit and handed him a cup of water.

Steve pulled her into a hug ignoring the water. "Glad you're ok." he muttered.

"_Me_?" Evie hugged him tightly but then pulled back to see his face, "Drink." She forced him to drink the water and take a morphine table making him laugh weakly but obeyed.

Once he'd drunk he glancing Evie over, "I saw Loki, we fought he said 'your girlfriend isn't as trustworthy as she seems Captain. Are you sure she's safe.' Do you know what he's talking about?"

Evie felt like slapping Loki, _seriously_? This is hard enough without him hinting to her boyfriend. Yes she knows exactly what Loki's on about but she couldn't say that to Steve so keeping a neutral expression she shook her head and then remembered to be scared and confused, she was beginning to become quite a good actress, "I don't know."

"Have you seen him? Has he come into the library?"

"Only today." Steve's eyes widened but Evie continued before he could speak, "Uh I was watching the fight in the school on the news and he teleported away from the school and appeared in the apartment."

Steve sat up straight and reached to touch her shoulder looking her up and down as expecting her to be badly injured, "What? _How_?"

Evie shrugged, "I don't know. I think there's probably some agents investigating it but no idea." Evie hesitated but she had to tell him the rest, "I only saw it on the news but uh, after you were knocked out he had the chance to...kill you but he didn't. He pulled away."

Steve's eyes narrowed, "Why would he do that?"

Evie shrugged, because of her? "I have no idea."

Steve hesitated, "I'm not saying that just because I don't like him but...are you sure Regalis is...who he says he is?"

Evie frowned and took a step back, it was more out of the shock that Steve had considered that, she wouldn't have if she hadn't seen Loki today. But she knew Steve would assume she stepped away out of annoyance at the very suggestion rather than shock, so she let him think that. "_No_. I mean _yes_ I'm sure. He's a normal human."

"How are you so sure?"

"Well I've seen his apartment; it looks like a normal _humans_ apartment." Well that's not a lie. "Plus Thor wasn't very good with technology and human stuff? Regalis is. He's like a normal human."

Ok getting a bit over defensive there, Evie abruptly stopped herself before she went into a full blown rant.

"Ok." Steve nodded tiredly, "I'm sorry, I'm just concerned for you, you understand that right?"

"I know," Evie sighed and stepped back towards him re-taking his hand, "Sorry. Long day and it's only 5. Look, you've just woken up. _Rest_."

Steve smiled, "I will. But first, how is everyone else?"

"They're all fine to my knowledge; I've only seen Tony though. I'll go grab someone if you want?"

"No need," Tony grinned strutting into the room. He was still in the suit but without the helmet and grinning as if nothing is wrong. "How you feeling gramps?"

Steve shrugged, "Like I've been thrown head first into a wall."

Tony laughed and perched on the arm of the chair, "I know that feeling all too well."

"How's everyone else?"

"We're all fine. Thor disappeared though."

"Oh?"

"Apparently Loki shouldn't be able to teleport so he went to Asgard to check it out."

"What happened once I was out?"

Tony gave a quick description.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Thor! Back so soon!" Na'qut smiled, sarcastically after Thor landed a few feet from his throne. "Fancy seeing you here! How's the wife?"

Thor stared at Na'qut, trying to figure out what he just said. "I'm not married."

Na'qut sighed. "Yeah, alright brainiac. It's a human thing. Try not to pull a muscle, okay?"

Thor just glanced at him. Na'qut was so...human it's _annoying_! "Did the stone arrive?"

"Nope."

"You're lying."

Na'qut grinned, "That I am. It's awesome."

"I need more information."

"Not so awesome." Na'qut conjured a chair for Thor opposite his own throne. "Please, sit."

"No thank you." Thor stood awkwardly. "I need more information."

"Again, not so awesome. What do you need?"

"Has Loki been here?" Na'qut nodded, "What did he ask for?"

Na'qut shook his head, "Loki already gave me something better."

Thor sighed. "A Lux stone?"

"Gotta do better than that, baby."

Thor struggled not to punch him. "Two."

Na'qut faked considering. "Ooh, maybe, that would be pretty cool, I gu- _No_." He laughed at his own joke.

Thor's eyes narrowed suspiciously, "What could Loki give you that's better than two _Lux_ stones?"

"His never dying love and attention." Na'qut paused, grinning. "Okay, honestly? He gave me something worth _all_ of your offers put together."

Thor thought for a second. "But – you are not actually loyal to him?"

"Well, no. 'course not. He just has a lotta money and contacts I guess." Na'qut destroyed the chair Thor was supposed to sit in.

It made Thor uneasy when Na'qut used magic – precisely why he was using it so much. "Then tell me."

"Nope. Don't feel like it. Also, I'm kinda busy at the moment."

"No you're not."

"No. I'm not. But I'm getting bored." He made little shoo'ing motions with his hands. "Off you pop." Thor stared at Na'qut for another minute but knew that he wasn't going to give him the information he needs and turned to leave, before he heard a voice behind him. "You know what it takes to make most daemons, right? Blood of a God. And you know what? Your wrist is the best place to take that blood from."

Was Na'qut having a change of heart, or simply wanting to throw Thor off? He didn't know. But Na'qut used some of his magic to force him to leave before Thor had even swung his hammer.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Thor landed ungracefully on the S.H.I.E.L.D base, the entire air craft shuddered with the sudden force. Agents all around jumped and turned their guns on Thor who completely ignored them as he picked himself up.

He stood up and shook himself out of it before storming inside.

He quickly found Clint talking to another agent, he was leaning heavily on his right side, he had obviously injured his left but refused to acknowledge the pain, "Barton," he called out and Clint spun around grinning.

"Thor, back so soon?"

Thor's eyes narrowed as Clint spoke the exact same words as Na'qut but then shook it off, Clint couldn't know Na'qut. If a human went to Kalur they'd burn to a crisp. "Yes, I have new information. Can we gather everyone?" he would have done so himself but travelling through realms tended to destroy the comm machine in his ear.

Clint nodded and put his hand to his ear, "Avengers, Thor's back. He's got new information. Meet in the main base?"

"Roger that." Tony answered along with Natasha and Bruce.

Tony turned back to Evie and Steve, "Can you walk Cap?"

"Yeah I think so, what's happened?"

"Thor's got some new information. C'mon." he watched for a minute as Steve slowly moved out of the bed taking a few testing steps before nodding. He glanced down at himself and was still in his Captain America uniform, except for the armour like shirt and just wore the long sleeved blue one which Evie loved.

The three made it to the main base to find all the Avengers in their usual spots around the eagle shaped table, Fury and Thor stood at the front.

"What is she _still_ doing here?" Fury demanded glaring at Evie. "I sent for everyone to go home after they gave their reports."

"I was sitting with my boyfriend who was unconscious at the time." Evie put in but everyone ignored her.

"Sir, Loki mentioned Evie so I feel this includes her now and I'd rather she hears the information." Steve said.

"Loki mentioned her? What did he say?"

"'Your girlfriend isn't as trustworthy as she seems Captain. Are you sure she's safe?'" he repeated Loki word for word.

"So the villain tells you that she's not trustworthy yet you have her in a top-secret base?"

"Sir, Loki is the God of trickery. _Lying_." Steve reminded him, "Evie says she doesn't know anything. I believe her."

"Well I don't. This is my boat and I don't want civilians hearing top-secret information. Especially when they've been dubbed 'untrustworthy'."

"_She_ is here you know." Evie spoke up and Fury glared at her, "I have no idea what Loki is talking about but I understand if you don't want me here. _Sir_." she added the term of respect as an afterthought, but it accidentally sounded sarcastic.

"Director," Thor got his attention, "The information I am about to give is not exactly top secret. I believe this will be beneficial for Evie to hear." Thor added. After a moment of decision Fury nodded and gestured for Thor to speak, "As I said earlier, those were smoke daemons Loki released to the Government. Smoke daemons can cause a being to stop trusting those that they before trusted and start trusting whoever created the Daemons or the blood used to create them. In this case – Loki." Everyone nodded to show they understood so far, "There is a being Na'qut, he is the king of the realm of Kalur, he is also a powerful sorcerer. His father's father created the daemons many, _many_ years ago when I was just a child and Na'qut has that ability. Last time I saw him he told me that Loki had asked for Kiss Daemons but this time he refused to cooperate. But before I left he reminded me that it takes blood to create some daemons. Usually from the wrist which would leave a scab, often a scar." Thor paused again looking around to make sure everyone understood so far.

"You've had a shit load of battle wounds I've yet to see a scar on you." Clint questions and Thor nodded.

"Usually a being of Asgard will not scar unless the wound is life threatening or it is done by magic. Loki's magic will make the scars fade eventually – they will always be there but much less visible – that will take a long while even using magic to speed things up. Plus Loki does not have the means of travel which I do – The tesseract – He will use Na'qut's magic to travel across the realms and create a more efficient way to travel from Midgard to Kalur, but that travel alone will make him tired and in need of rest. The actual method of making the daemons I have never actually seen done but I can imagine that will be tiring also. So all in all Loki will be too exhausted to worry about healing his wounds and will let them heal in his own time. Taking much longer – half the time of a human but a long time for an Asgardian." Thor again looked around to check that everyone understood and they all nodded again. "One last thing, if Loki has...shape-shifted as you would call it, the scars will also be visible on his other body, because when he changes forms his skin simply changes into anew. I do not know the process, nor if it is tiring or leaves any visible marks."

"What about his teleporting?" Bruce asked.

"There are a few spells he can cast but teleporting within the same realm is difficult. I can travel quickly as can Loki but teleporting is a different matter. I'm looking into the different means of teleporting as is my father and the chief magi but there is nothing immediately."

Thor nodded finally and sat down beside a thoughtfully looking Evie.

"So we're looking out of a man with scars on his wrist." Evie concluded.

"Or woman." Tony thought to add.

"Well that narrow's it down to at least half of Manhattan." Bruce added forced-cheerfully.

"Will they look like...self-harm scars?" Evie asked hesitantly.

"I assume so; it will be easy to mistake them as such." Thor nodded. "They will look a little different. At least they will probably look more controlled and in order. I have never seen self-harm scars so I cannot say specifically."

"Why? Do you know something Miss Rae?" Fury asked but Evie shook her head.

"Just checking. You know, they might look like Gallifreyan writing or something."

Fury rose an eyebrow but didn't comment, "Thor, is there any way you can confirm this with Na'qut?"

Thor shook his head, "He will not cooperate."

"Threaten?"

"He's the king of Kalur. Kalulur's will not bode well to their king being threatened and that can end in way." Thor answered and Fury nodded in understanding, "I do however need to consult with the AllFather once more."

Fury nodded his consent, "Go ahead. Stark I want you circling New York looking for anything out of place, Agent Romanoff, Captain I need you with me. If Thor's right about the smoke daemons then we need to be ready for the fight against the government. Thor is there a way to remove these daemons?"

"They will disappear themselves but it will take a few weeks to a few months."

"Loki's plans will probably hit within that time frame so we need to be ready. Agent Barton, Banner I need you to go talk with the X-men. Warn them of the upcoming fight."

"What about me?" Evie asked and Fury glared at her.

"I'll get an agent to drop you off."

"I will," Tony spoke up, "It'll be quicker and I need to grab something from the tower."

Evie considered refusing; last time she had travelled with Tony carrying her in the suit she had almost been sick when they landed. But then again she didn't want to ride with a silent creepy agent so she nodded gratefully at Tony.

"Can I tell the others this information?" Evie asked just before they left.

"The others?"

"Pepper and my room-mates."

Fury considered, "Yes." Thor answered before Fury could, "It will be beneficial for them to know."

Everyone stood and went to do as they we're assigned.

Evie gave Steve a quick kiss warning him to be careful, "I love you." She murmured before following Tony outside.


	21. The X-Mansion

**AN: Sorry this is so late! My beta and I have both had really busy weekends. Next chapter will be up on Friday!**

Clint and Bruce climbed into a jet and Clint sat straight into the pilot's seat. Bruce sat in the co-pilots seat looking nervous. Clint looked quite confident.

"Have you ever actually spoken to the X-men?" Bruce asked Clint once they were in the air.

"Kinda, I know a few mutants from the circus; few of them grew up in the X-mansion and fought with the X-men a few times but never met the X-men directly." Clint answered distractedly, wincing as he tensed his injured leg. "I've heard about the new Headmistress Ororo Munroe, A.K.A Storm. As far as I know she's easy to talk to. It's the Wolverine which you want to avoid. I've love to see a fight between him and you Bruce, well the Hulk."

Bruce rolled his eyes, "Well if this doesn't go as planned, record it."

"Oh I will don't worry." Clint promised making Bruce laugh, that was one thing he would never get used to, joking about the Hulk. "What about you? Have you spoken to them?"

"Once, soon after the accident, I wanted to know if Professor Xavier would be able to help in anyway but he couldn't since this isn't from the X-gene. He had promised if anything came up he'd contact me immediately but he never got the chance." Bruce explained. "He did suggest the cure – the mutant cure – but that just made him angrier."

"Him being the Hulk?"

"Yeah."

Conversation slowed after that, neither man having much to talk about as they flew towards the mansion.

It didn't take long to get to the mansion, they landed on the field by the large imposing gates and immediately they were surrounded by at least 10 people, Clint turned the comm system on, "Greetings X-men. We are of S.H.I.E.L.D and seek your assistance."

"Come out of your jet and we'll talk." A gruff voice ordered loudly.

Clint switched the engine off, opened the back and the two walked slowly down the ramp out of the jet. There were a few people stood by the exit of the jet, most of them looked quite young but wary and powerful. There were two stood looking just as much the leaders they probably are. The woman has short white/grey hair and a dark complexion; the man had a very wolfish look about him.

Clint held out his hand and stepped towards them managing not to limp, "I'm sorry to intrude but we are in great need of your assistance. I'm Agent Clint Barton, this is Dr Bruce Banner."

"Of S.H.I.E.L.D." Ororo commented and they all nodded. She took his offered hand to shake, "Pleasure to meet you. I'm Headmistress Munroe. You may call me Ororo. This is Logan."

"Did you have ta park by the front gates?" Logan asked curtly, he obviously didn't like these new guests. He refused to shake Clint's offered hand.

"I'll move it but where would you like me to put it?" Clint offered, his voice was urgent but obviously trying to act polite so not to put off any help they might get.

"Bobby will show you." Ororo motioned for one of the younger boys to come towards them. He was quite tall with blue eyes, mousey brown hair and broad shoulders. Clint nodded at him and stepped back into the jet, "Show him to my office afterwards." Ororo told Bobby who saluted with a grin and followed Clint into the jet, everyone else took that as a sign to disperse except Logan.

Ororo turned to Bruce and relaxed into a small kind smile allowing Bruce to relax slightly but he still felt nervous with ignorance of his surrounding and the people around him. Plus the crowded of the school, he could sense hundreds of children in this school and if he hulked he could hurt them. He calmed himself with the reminder that they're powerful and even if they can't stop him they could probably slow him down.

"Follow me to my office." Ororo offered, they started walking towards the large and old looking mansion. Logan moved to the other side of Bruce so that the two X-men were flanking Bruce making him feel anxious but he knew they were only doing it for their own safety rather than actually being threatening towards him. Logan looked at Bruce for a moment with an odd look on his face, Bruce rose an eyebrow in question but he didn't speak out not wanting to cause an argument and maybe Hulk-out.

"You smell odd." Logan commented as once the jet had risen into the sky and the noise had faded.

Bruce's eyebrow disappeared into his hairline at the very strange comment and resisted the urge to tell him about the shower he had this morning, "Oh?"

"Like anger hidden under calm. I've never met anyone that can do that."

Bruce smirked as if enjoying a private joke, "It takes practise."

"What did you say your name is?" Ororo asked.

"Bruce Banner."

A look of recognition entered Logan's eyes and he nodded, "The Hulk."

Bruce nodded, "That's the other guy, yeah."

Both X-men nodded again, "So how's old Nick doing?" Ororo asked.

Bruce was shocked at the familiarity in her voice. "You know Fury?"

"We're old friends." Ororo explained as she led them into the mansion, "He and the professor were...in business when I first started at this school."

Bruce nodding in understanding, staring about in wonder having never been here before. The walls were wooden and old fashioned with some framed pictures hanging on the walls, there were also pictures stuck with bluetack from younger children. There were a lot of coats on the floor, there was a large group of pegs but the kids seemed to have ignored them.

Ororo attempted to dodge the coats and muttering a mental note to tell the kids off for this. Logan didn't seem to care and was quite happy to step on the coats.

Only a few children went past as they walked down the halls, most of which greeted the two mutants and sent Bruce and odd look. Ororo finally pushed a door open leading into a large office with a desk beside a window, there was a comfy looking couch at the side and a book shelf. A stack of metal drawers sat behind the desk and papers were stridden around the desk.

"Take a seat." Ororo offered gesturing towards the couch. Bruce slowly sat down; Logan closed the door but stayed standing beside it making Bruce feel even tenser especially from the unwelcoming feel he got from this guy, the Hulk growled at the trapped feeling but Bruce mentally told him that they're safe here.

"Would you like refreshment?" Ororo offered gesturing to the small refrigerator at the side of the room.

"No thank you."

She nodded and took a seat on the student side of the desk facing Bruce leaning forward to show her interest, "I take it this is to do with the fight with Loki?"

"You saw the news?"

"It's hard to miss. We have a student at that school with their family."

Bruce nodded and begun to explain what had happened with Loki.

"Any reason you couldn't do this over the phone?"

"We don't know who's safe and who's not just by voice." Clint interrupted walking into the room with Bobby right behind him. He sat down beside Bruce crossing one leg over the other and lent back looking quite comfortable but still managed to look serious and described everything he understands on daemons, "Thor can detect the daemons but they're difficult to remove."

"How are they removed?" Storm asked.

"Depends on which. Most leave your system eventually but the Kiss Daemon takes people who will willingly die for you and for them to be there holding your hand or something and kissing you on a new moon."

"What if you don't have anyone that will willingly die for you?" Bobby asked curiously, both Bruce and Clint shrugged, though the thought worried them slightly.

"But we thought we should warn you, we don't know his main plan but we know it includes daemons. We'll keep you updated. If you hear anything please, let us know."

"Of course. Immediately."

Clint nodded and stood up holding out his hand, "Thank you for your time."

Ororo shook his and Bruce's hand, "Thank you for the warning. Logan, show them back to their jet."

"I remember the way." Clint offered but Ororo shook her head.

"We may be allies with S.H.I.E.L.D but there's very few people we'll let wander the lower floors unescorted."

The two Avengers nodded in understanding following Logan as he left the room. They walked in absolute silence for a few minutes until Clint spoke up in the elevator, "So uh, Logan right?" Logan nodded, "What can you do?" Logan lifted his fist and immediately three metal sharp claw slid out of his fist into full view of the Avengers. All their eyes widened and Bruce gaped. "Whoa." Clint muttered, "That's pretty awesome."

"I can heal too. Superhuman strength and healing."

Logan slid the claws back in with the distinct sound of metal on metal and nodded.

"Does it hurt?" Bruce asked Logan didn't answer. The elevator stopped and they were on a in a large corridor, different to the others, it was longer and more metal than wood. The entire corridor looked pretty futuristic and Clint could almost imagine the laser guns hide on the ceiling ready to blow him to pieces if he was an intruder.

"Do you teach?" Clint asked, Logan nodded again, "What do you teach?"

"You ask a lotta questions." Logan muttered.

Clint shrugged, "Just making casual conversation I guess."

"I take tha kids in the Danger room. Practise as a team and their powers." Logan shrugged.

"Danger room?"

Logan didn't answer and Clint didn't push understanding about having their own secrets in a large organisation.

"Here we are." Logan led them into a large room where the Quinjet was placed onto of a helipad logo.

"Thank you Logan." Bruce smiled softly. Logan just scowled at them as they got into the jet and the ceiling opened up allowing them to rise into the air and fly back to S.H.I.E.L.D.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When Evie and Tony landed on the balcony of the tower, Tony released Evie, she wobbled, steadied, tried to take a step forward and she would have fallen flat on her face if it wasn't for Tony grabbing her again just in time.

Evie sighed in relief as they landed, "I do _not_ like that way of travel."

Tony laughed and followed her inside his face plate sliding up as he walked, "Trust me, you get used to it. Pep!"

Pepper, Irene, Sherlock, Mycroft and Leo came straight at the two, questions ready but Tony held up a metal gloved hand to stop them, "Evie will explain I need to get going." He stepped closer to Pepper and kissed her then winked at the others before stepping back outside and shooting off into the air. They would later see him fly past once more that night before his return.

The others turned on Evie who sighed and begun to explain everything she knows. After she explained everything she found out today and looked between everyone, Pepper looked frightened, Leo looked confused, Irene looked indifferent, Mycroft and Sherlock wore matched thoughtful expressions.

"So that's all I know." Evie finished with a shrug. "When did you lot get back?"

"Few hours ago. Soon after you went to find Steve." Mycroft answered.

"How do we know we're not daemonised?" Irene asked.

"When was the last time you saw Thor?"

Irene shrugged, "Ages."

"When he gets back we'll put you guys in the same room, he'll know." Evie starting fiddling with a necklace, it was a simple silver heart and Irene frowned at it.

"When was the last time _you_ saw Thor?"

"Uh...earlier today, why?"

"Where did you get that necklace?"

Evie's hands froze and she looked down at it shrugging, "Duno, why?" Irene shook her head muttering 'nothing', "Do you think I _stole_ it?" Irene shrugged again and Evie narrowed her eyes, "What's up with you lately Rene? You've been pestering me about everything I do."

"Well yeah, you've been spending so much time with this _Regalis_ guy,"

"Oh so your jealous?"

Irene stood up stepping closer so the two girls were eye-to-eye, "No. I'm worried. I love Steve and lately I think I do more than you do."

"Now is _not_ the time for arguing," Pepper interrupted before the argument could expand. "I'm gonna go get some work done. You lot can do as you like, just _stop_ arguing. It's not going to help anything."

"Pep, are you alright?" Mycroft asked concerned.

"Just worried for Tony and the others. I'll never get used to this." Pepper shook her head and took the elevator to her makeshift office a few floors below. Or was it above? Evie could never remember.

"I'll make drinks." Leo muttered going to the kitchen, Irene followed offering to help. "You know this time last month if I told myself I'd be making drinks in Iron Man's kitchen I would have laughed at myself and said wake up."

"I know the feeling." Evie agreed, "Sometimes I still can't get over it all and I _live_ here."

"And now we're in the middle of it." Irene sighed.

"I'm sorry," Evie spoke sounding almost sarcastic, "If I hadn't met Steve-"

"Then Regalis would probably have been a perfect fun guy that we all would have liked."

Evie glared at her best friend, "Irene-"

Irene spun around from the kitchen to face Evie, the men were watching them. Leo was really confused any thoughts of making a drink now forgotten, "What? I'm just stating the truth."

"_Why_ don't you believe me?" Evie sighed, "You've been so _bitchy_ lately! Just being bloody pissy about _everything_ I do!"

"Both of you stop it!" Sherlock yelled making them stop in their tracks. Sherlock _never_ yelled. "You've been arguing all the time lately. Yes, none of us like Regalis and we don't approve blah, blah, blah! It's all shit, _ok_? Let's just let this go and go back to how we were before all this crap happened. I miss _us_! Just hanging out watching a film together. You know we haven't done that since Steve interrupted Cabin in the Woods? We tried earlier but it gets interrupted! We don't blame _you_ for this Evie. We love the Avengers even if it means now being involved with saving the world. Hey maybe it's better? We can now do something with our lives that most people _aren't_ but no matter _what_ we need to stay friends!" with that Sherlock turned and stalking into the elevator.

"Where would you like to go?" JARVIS asked when Sherlock didn't press a button.

"Pepper's office if I'm authorised."

The other four stared at the elevator for a minute before Evie sighed and stepped forward but Mycroft put his hand on her shoulder, "He wants to be alone for a bit. Let him."

Evie sighed but nodded, "You know what, Sherly has the right idea," Irene took the stairs because it would take too long to wait for the elevator and still make a dramatic exit.

"Are you two gonna leave now?" Evie asked. Mycroft and Leo glanced at each other.

"I'm tempted but there's no point it won't solve anything." Mycroft answered first.

"Can I ask what's going on?" Leo asked hesitantly, "Why are you lot arguing? The only time I've ever seen you lot arguing was over what monopoly pieces you wanted."

"There's just a lot happening at the moment with Loki and everyone's stressed around here." Evie said in explanation as they all moved to the couch and stared at the blank TV, "I don't know exactly where we went wrong though."

"I love you Evie but I think it's more where did _you_ go wrong." Mycroft corrected.

Evie frowned and turned to face Mycroft, "What did _I_ do? Did you not want me to move in with Steve? I still see you guys a hell of a lot more than I did when me and Jacob lived in Portland."

Mycroft turned to face her properly, "It's not how often we get to see you but it's your attitude when we do."

"What do you mean?"

"At first it was fine; we enjoyed it got used to our lives. But now it's Regalis this and Regalis that. We know you're cheating on Steve with him. That much is _obvious_. And of course we don't approve. But it's not just _that_, you've been stealing. That necklace for one, who knows what else. And you've been so unlike you, you know you made a joke the other day about Irene's _weight_? You know as well as I do she's over self-conscious over it. I don't see why but she worries." Mycroft sighed stopping himself from getting into any more of a rant. "You just haven't been you lately."

"I'm _me_!" Evie took a second to remember how much she sounded like Tony when he was daemonised but quickly shook it off.

"Regalis?" Leo asked, "He's that guy I met when I came into the library right?"

Evie nodded, "We're just friends but everyone thinks we're more than that."

Leo hesitated but he was always one for saying what's on his mind and not holding back so he didn't, "I did think you two looked quite...comfortable. And he seemed quite protective of you."

Evie shrugged, "So what, it's the same with you two."

"We've known you since Middle school and uni." Leo gestured between him and Mycroft when he said where they know her from and Evie scowled at him.

"Let's just let this go, when they come back we're gonna sit down, watch the end of Cabin in the Woods and talk about nothing particularly important until the Avengers return ok?"

"Okay." Evie sighed.

Clint and Bruce arrived home over an hour later, well the large jet landed just outside the common room floor, Clint waved at them and Bruce stepped out of the jet and came in to the common room before Clint took off again.

"Hey," Bruce greeted them all and frowned at Leo, "Who are you?"

"Leo." He answered with a small sigh getting annoyed with introducing himself. "I was with everyone when Loki turned up."

"Ah nice to meet you then." Bruce held out his hand and Leo shook it as Bruce introduced himself, "Bruce Banner."

Leo froze as he recognised the name and realised exactly _which_ Avenger this is. That Bruce could crush him like a bug if Leo accidently angered him. But Leo managed a polite – if a little tight – smile. "N-nice to m-meet you too." He stammered unsure what else to say.

Bruce noticed his reaction but wasn't surprised, it was a very subtle reaction compared to some people, "Where are the others?" he directed the question to Evie and Mycroft.

"They stormed off," Evie stated, Bruce rose an eyebrow in question.

"Pepper went to do some work to wait, and Evie had a bit of an argument with Sherly and Rene." Mycroft explained, Evie glared at him but he ignored her.

"Right," Bruce glanced between them worriedly and he went to the kitchen to make a drink.

"You went to the X-men?" Mycroft asked curiously and Bruce nodded.

"Yeah. Just to warn them of what may come. Clint went back up to S.H.I.E.L.D, to my knowledge I'm not needed just yet."

Before he could say anything else the elevator door opened and Irene walked in grinning. She refused to look at Evie and instead walked up to Bruce and hugged him. Bruce stood shell-shocked for a moment before hugging her back. That's one thing he'll never get used to, the various hugs from Irene and occasionally Evie or just people in general, and when the Avengers would just touch him casually, a pat on the shoulder, a brush on the arm. He was used to people shying away from him and being terrified.

Not _willingly_ touching him.

He was used to Leo's reaction, being scared. Leo had taken the seat as far from him as possible, it might not have been a conscious decision but it showed Leo was scared of him, and rightly so. He could crush him quite easily so when someone hugged him he didn't know how he should react.

Irene pulled away and smiled at him, he smiled softly in return. He knew exactly how she feels about him, it had been obvious since they meet and slowly became friends. His own feelings had been growing but he knew it couldn't happen, he could kill her and he didn't want to. She's safer staying at arm's length as much as it hurts him, she hadn't come forward with her feelings yet but he had the speech ready for when she does. _If_ she does.

"Are you ok?" Irene asked and Bruce almost laughed. It was such a simple question but after those thoughts he wasn't expecting it.

"I'm fine, I just went to the X-men not a big mission. I didn't even Hulk." He stated almost sarcastically with a grin. Behind Irene, Leo was watching them almost fascinated with Irene's reaction to Bruce.

"Good," Irene grinned back and stepped away, "So what's the plan now? Are we stuck here until Loki's in custody or what?"

Bruce shrugged, "I don't know but I doubt it. He knows where we live so you're probably in more danger here anyway. We don't know how long it's going to take so you might as well get on with your life just be cautious. Speak to Nat or Clint though." Bruce shrugged again he hated people asking him what to do, he's not a leader, all he does is smash and science.

A few moments later Sherlock and Pepper joined them; apparently Sherlock had been talking to Pepper in her office for the past few hours. "Sherly, just in time," Irene grinned, "5 minutes of your birthday left."

"What's the time?" Evie asked needlessly, Irene rose an eyebrow.

"Do the maths."

Evie rolled her eyes. "It's your birthday?" Bruce glanced between Mycroft and Sherlock, "Happy Birthday."

"Thanks." The brothers said in union.

"It's been a long day." Mycroft muttered.

"You can say that again," Evie agreed softly, it felt like _weeks_ ago that she found out that Regalis is Loki, not just this morning. "Happy birthday twinnies. Love you both." She held up the wine glass that she had poured earlier and the 'happy birthday' was echoed around the room.

Tony arrived home soon after that and removed the suit; he sauntered into the room and greeted Pepper and everyone else. "Thor and I are taking turns circling New York looking for Loki." He thought to explain.

"How do you know he's in New York?" Leo asked.

Tony frowned at Leo temporally forgetting who he is, "We don't, but this is where base of operations is. Sort of. So kinda most important part."

"So what do we do now? Are we stuck in here?"

"My immediate reaction is to take you lot to my house in LA bu-"

"You have a house in LA?!" Irene squealed.

Tony winced at the high pitched noise and nodded, "Yes. So I would take you lot there now but I don't actually know what's gonna happen so it's better to stay here for now and try and be careful."

"We ain't leaving for the fight." Sherlock spoke up and Tony rose an eyebrow.

"You can't do anything."

"We can help civilians on the ground." Mycroft answered.

"Um...how do we know there's gonna be a huge fight like last time?" Leo asked curiously.

"Loki's a Diva."

"Preparing for the worst case scenario."

Tony and Bruce answered at the same time and Bruce rolled his eyes at Tony's answer. "Right. Is there a date set?" Leo asked.

"Not yet. Trying to get in contact with Loki find out his full plan." Bruce stated his voice laced with sarcasm, "We're hoping he'll give it to us in a song Disney-style."

Leo snorted and everyone laughed. "That would be pretty interesting to see." Tony nodded.

"Define interesting?" Leo asked.

"Oh god, oh god we're all going to die." Tony smirked at Leo who's eyes widened grinning.

"Wait so, is a singing Loki traumatising us so much that we kill ourselves or each other," Mycroft started.

"_Or_ is he gonna kill us while singing?" Sherlock finished.

"Both." Tony nodded, "The people he doesn't kill are gonna kill themselves."

"Or each other!"

"Or each other."

"Have we all finally cracked?" Pepper asked, genuinely curious.

"Pep that happened way before you met me."

Pepper rolled her eyes, "So what now?"

"We wait for news; I've got JARVIS running a scan."

"Well I duno about you lot, but this has been a long day I'm gonna get to bed. Uh...do you know when Steve'll be home?" Evie asked.

Tony shrugged. "No idea. I should be getting back up to S.H.I.E.L.D but I was told to grab Bruce and thought you lot deserved an update. You lot know where the spare rooms are."

Bruce sighed, "You know the Hulk hates travelling via Iron Man?"

Tony shrugged, "Makes for a more interesting trip."

Bruce chuckled and waited patiently as Tony said goodbye to Pepper and they both went outside.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Mycroft paced back and forth in his room. The room was simple with white washed walls, a wardrobe in the corner, there was a large flat screen TV on the wall along with a mini fridge and a desk in the corner with various piles of paper spread across it.

Mycroft came to most of the parties and usually stayed the night so had claimed his own room, Tony had enough spare rooms.

Right now all Mycroft could think about was Evie. He felt useless, he knows Evie's cheating and as her friend he should be doing something but she wasn't _listening_ to him. She wasn't listening to _anyone_.

He knew it's got to do with this Regalis fellow, the scars Evie had told him about. Scars on his wrists and what Thor had found out earlier about needing the blood and leaving a scar. Regalis could be Loki. Plus what Irene had said earlier, that Loki is Regalis she explained it afterward about watching the Avatar film with Regalis.

Mycroft knew he could be wrong, he shouldn't go around accusing people that have legitimately self-harmed to be Loki but it all fit. The fact that Evie's committing the one sin she had vowed to never do. The way she's been acting lately. _Everything_.

If he is Loki then she's daemonised.

"JARVIS, when's the next new moon?"

"April 10th. 4 days." JARVIS answered immediately.

"Thanks." In 4 days, Mycroft would drag Evie from where ever she is and refuse to release her hand until after midnight.

Shaking away those thoughts he stripped off his shirt and climbed into bed, he'd worry about this tomorrow. Today has been a bloody long day he needs his sleep.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Evie didn't sleep very well, tossing and turning all through the night but eventually she fell into a restless sleep. When she woke up, bags under her eyes and body aching she sighed as everything came back to her.

"That was a heavy sigh, everything alright?"

Evie jumped and looked up where Steve was stood by the wardrobe looking for a shirt.

"Steve!" Evie laughed, "_Hey_!"

"Hello." Steve chuckled. "Are you ok?"

Evie nodded, "Didn't sleep very well. Just worried. How are you? Your head?"

"I'm doing alright," Steve shrugged but Evie ignored him and climbed out of the bed stepping towards him, she grabbed his shoulder to pull him downwards and inspect his wound. It was already healing pretty quickly due to the super-serum but still looked bruised and painful.

She kissed it softly making him laugh, she released him and stepped back letting him stand up straight and continue looking for a shirt. "So, what's actually happening?"

"Well now we've actually _seen_ Loki it's confirmed he's actually here on Earth, so everything's stepping up a notch now. We're not really sure what Loki's gonna do with the Government though so we're working out how to fight back politically."

"Right." She sat down on the bed watching as he put on a white shirt, did up the buttons and tucked it into his jeans, it looked so old-fashioned but she found it endearing how he still does that, "Croft's a lawyer." she stated unnecessarily.

Steve chuckled, "Yeah, Tony's talking to him few floors down. S.H.I.E.L.D has their own lawyers but a lawyer of the civilians would be helpful I assume."

Evie nodded and stood up again, she winced suddenly a sick feeling rising from her stomach. She ran out of the room into the en-suite bending down wrenching into the toilet. Barely a moment later she felt a hand rubbing at her back and another holding her hair back.

After a few minutes she pulled back and wiped at her mouth with tissue. Steve stood up and walked away to pour a glass of water. When he returned Evie smiled gratefully at him and washed her mouth out.

"Sorry about that." she muttered.

"It's fine Evelyn, have you been feeling ill?"

Evie shrugged, "I guess maybe."

"Look, I could stay with you today if you're feeling sick?"

Evie shook her head a thoughtful expression, "I'm fine, duno what that was really. Saving the world is more important."

Steve nodded and kissed her forehead, "Alright, take the day off work and rest. I love you."

"I love you too."

She watched as Steve left the room and sighed, just when she thought maybe she was starting to make a decision Steve has to go and continue being absolutely _perfect_.

She eventually got dressed, brushed her teeth and hair and went down to the common room.

She paused at the sight of Fury, he was pacing back and forth in front of the couch where Mycroft was sat on the couch looking entirely too comfortable to have the intimidating man pacing in front of him. Sat beside Mycroft, sat Tony who looked bored, Natasha who was thinking, Maria Hill and lastly a couple of various people in suits.

Mycroft looked quite out of place in his spare T-shirt and jeans. For once Tony was actually wearing a suit but he didn't look very comfortable in it, he kept tugging on the tie.

Natasha noticed her first and nodded in greeting.

Everyone turned to stare at her, Evie froze like a deer in the headlights and immediate turned around and went back into the elevator without a word spoken.

"Is she alright?" Maria asked Natasha.

Natasha smirked and nodded, "I doubt she was expecting so many people here."

Evie didn't know why she left so quickly, part of her thought that maybe Fury would read her mind and know about Loki. She knew that was stupid, except it might not be, more impossible things have happened, all the Avengers were impossible technically. Most of them at least.

She decided she couldn't stay here, so she went back to her floor to grab the gun that she technically wasn't allowed out without and went out for a walk in the cold spring weather, her mind racing.

Regalis. Is. Loki. She spent the entire night reminding herself of that fact but she couldn't even to decide what to do.

Evie knew that she should say something, _tell someone_. But she didn't want to. She still loves Regalis.

Her main concern isn't that he's Loki. No. It's because he _lied_ to her. She understands _why_ of course, before she fell in love she wouldn't have hesitated in calling the Avengers.

But _now_? She didn't want to lose him. Lose Loki and she loses Regalis.

So instead she stays silent.

Except right now Loki isn't her main concern.

No. Her main concern was that last night as she attempted to sleep she realised that she's late on her period. Over a week late.

And she's never _that_ late.

She wanted to ignore it but she was sick this morning. She hadn't woken up feeling ill; it just came suddenly and went just as quickly.

She couldn't ignore it any longer; she had to get a pregnancy test. So that's where she was, looking for a pharmacy.

"Hey! You're Evie Rae aren't you?" the teenage student at the till stated.

Evie sighed, spun on her heel and left the store.

She didn't want someone that knows who she is seeing this, they'll get the wrong idea and it'll be on the news by sundown.

To her slight surprise and definite annoyance it took three different shops around the city until she finally found one with an old man who didn't seem to recognise her. He looked a bit scared when she asked – a bit more rudely that she's intended – 'do you know who I am?'

She bought a test and thanked him before leaving.

She couldn't go back to the tower because most likely an Avenger will be there plus she felt like JARVIS was watching her everywhere even in the bathroom.

She couldn't go back to the apartment because she didn't know who would be there. So she went to the toilets in the library.

"Evie," Ella greeted her, "I thought you weren't coming in today?"

Evie shook her head, "Nope sorry. Doing stuff for the Avengers but I need to use the ladies room."

"Ah." Ella laughed, "Go ahead."

Evie nervously checked out each stall to check that they were empty before sitting down and attempting – and struggling – to pee on each of the sticks.

As she sat on the closed toilet lid staring at the small white stick in her hand she found herself genuinely wonder what she wants it to say.

She wanted a _no_ because well, a baby? Right _now_? Yes she's at the right time of her life; she has money, but not a stable relationship.

If it was Steve's then that'd be easy. Steve would be ecstatic that they have a kid together, she'd tell the Avengers about Loki so he wouldn't threaten them and they'd live happily ever after. But of course it's not Steve's.

It's Loki's. The man she thought was Regalis, the man she had been cheating on the love of her life with.

So she'll lose the Avengers, the internet will find out and she'll be hated for breaking Captain America's heart. And worst of all she'll lose Steve.

And she had no idea how to look after a baby. Especially a God's baby.

But she also hoped it would say _yes_ because it would make her decision easier, break up with Steve, go back to Loki and take over the world, she will be his Queen and they will spoil this baby with everything they have.

And because a baby, as hard as it will be, would be _incredible_.

She knew having a baby shouldn't be used to make a relationship better because it can often make it worse. But if Loki wants this kid, then she thinks it would work out, it'd be hard at first but taking over the world? Done.

And because she didn't know how much she wanted to be a mum until now.

To have a child, to be a mother, Evie couldn't imagine a better or more terrifying life for herself.

Evie swallowed as the two minute alarm went off and she slowly turned her eyes towards the small white stick and her heart leaped out of her chest.

**Yes**.

She's pregnant.


	22. Kiss and (a considered) breakup

"Shit." she muttered. What the hell is she supposed to do now?

Go back to Loki.

Have a kid with Loki.

Take over the world with Loki.

Break up with Steve.

Not exactly in that order.

When she eventually walked back into the main library she was surprised to find Steve there waiting calmly by the desk talking to a young boy. He saw her and smiled, she smiled back.

Damnit. She doesn't want to leave him. He's so perfect. But she can't be with him _and_ Loki. She has to choose Loki because he's the father of her baby.

She'll talk to him before she breaks it off with Steve though.

Steve signed something for the young boy and then joined Evie greeting her with a kiss, "Hey," she greeted trying to push back her nerves and sadness and be her usual happy self.

"Hey, you alright? You were in there for ages?" He suddenly looked more concerned, "Were you sick again?"

"Nah, I'm fine. Just a bit of a stomach ache." she shrugged. "I thought you were at the base?"

Steve shrugged, "I don't know much about politics so I'm not needed right now. How about a movie tonight? I don't know when we'll get another chance until this is over. We'll stop and get your favourite ice cream? Ben and Jerry's Baked Alaska right?"

Evie felt a sudden sadness, even though they've been arguing so often he's still concerned and wants them to have a nice night in for them.

Well, she's gonna leave him soon so they may as well spend the time they can together for now. She smiled and nodded, she'll let Loki stew for a few days.

"Yeah. That sounds amazing Steve."

Steve looked overjoyed by that.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Mycroft had only managed a few hours of sleep before giving up and getting changed and ready for the day. He rung into work to say he won't be able to come to work that day he was helping the Avengers with an important project. They couldn't fire him for that, he's friends of the Avengers, since that came out to the public his firm has been getting more and more clients and support.

He had planned to talk to Thor but he was either at S.H.I.E.L.D or Asgard so instead he wandered into the common room hoping he'd be able to help in some way.

Turns out because he's a lawyer he _can_ be useful.

He was discussing plans with some of S.H.I.E.L.D's lawyers when a clap of thunder caught his attention; he glanced out the large window smiling at the gathering of dark clouds and then a strike of lightning.

Thor.

New York has had more storms in the past year than in the last 20 years put together, at least they cleared quickly.

"Excuse me please," Mycroft spoke to the other lawyers, "I need to speak with Thor."

Mycroft went straight into the elevator and travelled up to Thor's floor after asking JARVIS which floor it is.

The elevator opened in a corridor, Mycroft rose an eyebrow, most floors that opened had one door into the entire flat. This one had three doors; he went straight for the middle and knocked. No answer. He stood awkwardly before going for the door at the left and knocked, no answer, finally he went to the door at the right. "Third times a charm." he muttered as he knocked and sure enough the door opened and Thor took up the entire door way with his broad very naked chest. Mycroft being eye-level with the middle of his chest took a moment to remember to look up to look at his face.

"My-croft," Thor greeted and Mycroft couldn't help but love how Thor say's his name, separating the two syllables. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, uh I just needed to talk, uh...ask, you about something. It's about Loki,"

"Ah, I'll be out in a moment you may wait in the living room. Door furthest on the left."

"Alright, thanks." Mycroft managed to pull his eyes away from the incredibly sexy Norse-God and went into the other room. The living room was quite long with a large couch with a TV opposite; there was a bookshelf full of old looking books. On the other side of the room was the kitchen. A half-eaten foot-long sandwich was on the breakfast bar. The entire room was decorated in reds, golds and purples, it looked very royal.

There were various pictures on the walls, most of which were drawn probably by Steve some were photographs; all were of Thor and his friends, some of which he didn't recognise and assumed there were from Asgard.

In the middle of the room was a stone pedestal, it reached up to the middle of his waist, all around it were carving, Mycroft stepped closer and bent down to look closer. There were two boys, _children_, they were sat in a large beautiful garden with flowers around them and a water fountain with horses and lions carved into it.

Mycroft started to walk around the pedestal and he realised it was a story, the next side had two men on a large bridge riding what looked like 6 legged horses, it looked as if they were racing. The next side had the same to men stood on the same bridge from before but this time they were facing off, one held a square object, the other a staff. Thor and Loki. Mycroft realised, this was their story.

On the final side had the same garden as before, but this time it was just one man sat in the garden head in his heads. Mycroft's heart broke for Thor. He stood up straighter wishing he had never seen this story.

Four images told a lot, he hadn't realised how hard this must be for Thor, his brother betraying him. He couldn't even _being_ to imagine what it must be like, to have grown up together and then for his brother to do what he's done. If Sherlock ever did this Mycroft knew he would probably curl up in the corner and pretend it wasn't happening, Thor seemed to be dealing quite well.

Mycroft decided instead to look at the hammer, it was simpler looking than he had expected. Slowly he reached forward and took hold of the handle when he tried to pick it up he was shock at how it felt, he was expecting it to be too heavy to actually pick up but thought he could maybe shift it a tiny bit to the side. Except he was wrong, _this_ felt like it was concreted into the ground. Like he was trying to move a house.

He heard a deep chuckle from behind him and spun around to see an amused Thor – now with a shirt on – watching him.

"Sorry." Mycroft said sheepishly, releasing his hold on the hammer.

Thor shook his head, "Quite alright, everyone has tried."

"How heavy is it for you?"

"I would expect the equivalent of you holding a hammer from Midgard."

Mycroft nodded in understanding and Thor went to the kitchen, "Would you like a drink?"

"No thank you."

Thor nodded and poured himself one gesturing for Mycroft to sit down, "So what is it you wish to tell me?"

"Well Evie told us about the thing you found out about needing blood and cuts." Thor nodded, Mycroft sighed, "I could be wrong here but the more I think about it all works out with the time and the way Evie's been acting," Thor rose his eyebrow in question, "A few weeks ago Evie told me about Regalis, she saw self-harm scars on his wrist and came to talk to me about it,"

Thor looked "Why you?"

"Uh," Mycroft refused to meet Thor's arms as he rolled up his sleeve, Thor made a noise of understanding and Mycroft pulled down the sleeve before looking back at Thor, "And after she told me about that thing you said I thought about Regalis. Plus uh when Loki turned up at our apartment he said something about watching Avatar,"

"The film with the large blue people?"

"Yeah, and apparently Evie, Irene and Regalis watched that film together."

"Why would Loki remind them of this? Hint about being Regalis?"

Mycroft shrugged, "Why does it do any of the things he does? It makes sense, Evie's been different lately. Are you sure she's not daemonised?"

"I haven't detected anything." Thor shook his head, "I can re-check but if she's in the building I should be able to feel it."

"I don't know where she is at the moment, but you've been together lately right?"

Thor nodded, "She was at S.H.I.E.L.D."

"What about Loki...hexing it hidden?"

Thor rose an eyebrow at his wording, "To my knowledge it's not possible."

"Go to the library maybe." Mycroft suggested then froze, he felt like he was ordering Thor about, "Sorry, I mean if you have the time and the chance, y'know. See if you can see him. Regalis that is, do you think you'll be able to know if it's him?"

"I don't think so but I will check the scars if possible. I should sense the magic."

"Do you have magic?"

"Not in the way Loki does. But I have grown up and been used in many of Loki's experiments so I know what to look for."

Mycroft nodded in understanding, but before he could answer JARVIS interrupted, "Mr Browning, Mr Stark would like to see you in the common room if convenient."

"I'll-"

"Mr Stark also adds 'if inconvenient come anyway.'" They could almost hear the exasperated humour in JARVIS' robotic tone and Mycroft couldn't help but laugh.

"I'll be there in a moment, thank you JARVIS." Mycroft turned to Thor, "Alright. Well I just thought I should tell you but I should get going." Mycroft stood up and Thor did also.

"Ok. Thank you for the information Mycroft." Thor patted Mycroft shoulder and held the door open for him.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Movie room or our floor?" Evie asked as they walked into the tower, the doors recognising them and sliding open.

Steve shrugged, "Movie room? Less chance to be interrupted."

Evie giggled and grinned, "Yeah. Good idea." she felt tears well up in her eyes. This was probably the longest it has been since they had last argued. She was gonna miss him so much when this was all over. She vowed not to try not to argue again until she has to leave him. Although arguing would make things easier but she wanted him to spend the last few days happy until she takes his heart and stomps on it.

Because if she's taking Loki's side, she'll face off with the Avengers. She and Steve will face off, even if she wants to avoid it, they will have to. Unless Loki kills him before they can but she would hope he isn't the one to do that.

"I, Robot?" Steve suggested pulling Evie out of her thoughts.

"Sure. Will Smith. He's the one person I've always wanted to meet. Well except you, but I've met you now so..." Evie trailed off sheepishly and grinned. Steve chuckled.

"I'm sure Tony would love to invite him to his next party."

Evie's barely stopped herself from making a 'I choose him over you' joke knowing that right now he wouldn't be able to take it in the humour that it's meant. Instead she grinned, "That would be pretty cool. But seriously, every time there's a new film of his you think, 'alright he's had his fair share of awesomeness' then it gets _better_! We are totally going to see After Earth when-" Evie cut off, they wouldn't be together then.

"When...?" Steve prompted, he un-tucked his shirt for more comfort as he took his seat on the small couch leaving enough room for Evie to sit down comfortably beside him.

"Comes out." Evie forced herself to finish her sentence cheerfully sitting down beside him, snuggling into his warm side.

Steve chuckled, "Sure." he had a small satisfied looking smile on his face. Evie looked back at the large movie screen as the film started playing; Evie opened the ice cream and started eating.

They were halfway into the film when Steve looked down at Evie; she was giggling at something Sonny the Robot just said.

Steve wasn't really interested in the film, it was good but he had seen it a few months back with the Avengers. He was just watching Evie and thinking about what she said. He thought he knew what she meant by that. That they'll still be together whenever that film is released, that she _wants_ to stay with him.

He knew he was reading into a small sentence too far but he didn't care, he loves her and is willing to do anything for her.

They were having a nice relaxing afternoon, Evie was happily eating her ice cream, occasionally handing the spoon to him to have some but most of the time she was distracted in just watching the film, gasping and laughing at the right moments. He watched, mesmerised, as her tongue slid out to lick some ice cream off her lip and then took another bite of it.

She got some ice cream on her nose and he laughed. Evie looked up at him curiously then looked back at the screen and up at Steve. "Was that amusing?" she asked pointing at the screen with the spoon frowning as it dripped.

He laughed and shook his head and used his thumb to wipe the ice cream of her nose. "Ice cream." he muttered, Evie grinned and pulled him into a kiss.

"I love you." she murmured making his heart jump in his chest. She hadn't said it first in too long and when she did it never sounded as certain at that moment. Maybe he didn't need to worry anymore, maybe she's finally chosen him.

"I love you too." he whispered, the film quickly forgotten, the ice cream pot fell to the floor.

Until of course a door slams open and Leo bursts into the room. They pulled apart and both glared at Leo but as soon as they recognised him Steve's face softened.

"Ops. Sorry. I'll uh..."

Steve shook his head blushing, "It's alright, what's up?"

"I was about to se- _get_ going. _Home_ that is, wanted to say bye. JARVIS said you were in here."

"Oh." Evie untangled herself from Steve and frowned at the ice cream box that had fallen on the floor slowly seeping out. She reached down to pluck it from the floor staring solemnly at the ice cream already on the floor. A robot came out of seemingly nowhere to clean it up.

Evie ignored it and ran towards Leo to hug him, "How are you getting home?" she asked as they separated.

"Hawkeye, uh...Clint offered me a lift in the jet."

Evie nodded, "Well it was _awesome_ seeing you. Sorry you were dragged into this."

Leo shrugged, "Made for a more interesting visit and I may have a new book idea if this first one goes well."

Evie and Steve chuckled, "When this is all over I'll come down and see you." Evie promised kissing his cheek. "Want me to walk you up?"

"Nah it's fine. Just have fun, continue," he waved his hands awkwardly and turned to Steve. "Nice to meet you by the way. Sorry for the interruption."

Steve shrugged, "Nice to meet you too Leo."

With that Leo hugged Evie again and left to go home.

"So where were we?" Evie grinned at Steve who chuckled and allowed her to straddle him kissing him. This might be the last opportunity they get together like this. She ran her hands up his shirt pulling it off, he reached around to undo the buttons of her shirt, he managed to get it off and she shivered at the look he gave her.

She bent closer and kissed him again.

She knew on some subconscious level she _needs_ this because if worse comes to worse she can say it's Steve child, until he or she is born. They'll have no reason not to believe her, and she'll have time to sort herself encase he or she looks too much like Loki and they know she lied, if they don't she'll have to live with knowing forever what she did but she could live with that.

That is, of course if Loki doesn't want it. She knew that was one of the worst things that she could do to Steve, make love and then leave him in a few days for Loki? She couldn't imagine the pain that would cause him, but right now she couldn't bring herself to care and lost herself in his kiss and the feel of his warm large familiar hands against her skin.

She started to undo the belt of his jeans but he pulled away from the kiss. She frowned at him, "What's wrong?"

He shook his head, "Not now. I'm sorry, just-"

"You wanna wait." She knew. "Tradition values and stuff. Yeah, I get it, sorry."

Steve sighed, "I'm sorry. It's not just that, it's just we're not in the best place in our relationship at the moment Evelyn. I mean I love you but this is the first time we haven't argued in weeks and I just...don't want sex to just be that _thing_ to stop us from arguing. I love you Evelyn."

Evie nodded, "I know, I understand. I love you too." she kissed him again and then pulled her own shirt back on, when he reached for his Evie shook her head, "Just cause I understand doesn't mean you have to wear a shirt."

Steve laughed and left it off, Evie picked up the ice cream and continued eating what was left leaning back into his side and wondering when she's gonna go talk to Loki.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

That evening Steve had to go back to S.H.I.E.L.D but a few hours later while Evie was chatting to Pepper, JARVIS made them jump. "Mr Stark wants you to turn to channel 1."

The two women frowned at each other but Pepper moved to turn the TV on and put it onto Channel 1.

The News.

"_...Note from President Xander that he wants to shut down the Avengers, he no longer sees the superhuman group as trustworthy. On the matter he says: We trusted them to stop Loki but now we know he's back and already trying to destroy New York for the second time and the Avengers let him escape again. In other news th.._."

"I thought the president was all for the Avengers?" Evie asked Pepper, ignoring the TV now.

Pepper shrugged, "So did I but it might be those smoke daemons or something? They make you be distrustful towards someone you used to trust and begin to trust someone you never used to."

"Wait, will that just be the Avengers or will he start trusting...Cuba or something and stop trusting his most trusted advisors?"

Pepper shrugged again looking horrified, "I don't know. We'll have to ask Thor."

There were a few more similar reports all coming from people from the school that was attacked until Pepper got annoyed with the horrid words against the Avengers and nobody seemed to be defending them and switched it off.

The next few days were very similar but eventually some people started to come forward to defend the Avengers but with the most powerful man in America against them it wasn't of any use.

The Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D stepped in fighting back and they managed to get a press conference where Tony and the Avengers spoke up trying to defend themselves but it didn't go so well.

Thor explained that Loki has control of the smoke daemons so he approaches someone that has the smoke daemon in their system, they'll trust him and he can tell them to not to trust but they won't just stop trusting everyone, which was a definite relief to know.

However the Smoke daemons spread, like a virus. Slowly but surely, at first only the people in the school were daemonised and 5 days later their friends and families were smoke daemonised too.

Mycroft had been busy every day with the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D along with some of his most trusted lawyer friends fighting back against the President that wanted to shut down the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D, but there was only so much they could do against the President.

Evie tried to help but there wasn't much she could do except post across Tumblr trying to up the Avengers and see if she still had support.

**Hello, my followers. Now, I've already lost around fifty followers and I think I know why – because of the avengers.  
****You guys are all idiots for going against them. If some battle broke out with Loki, you realise they're the safest place to be, right?  
****If you don't want to listen, fine, but I promise you they are safe. I don't care if I lose followers, the message is more important.  
****I'll see y'all later.**

She managed over 3 thousand notes so far, so they were still safe from the some of the general public but then again all of those notes could be from people in different countries that it doesn't effect as much.

She lost another fifty followers in the space of twenty minutes.

So Evie just went about her normal life, she quickly realised that morning sickness is a bitch. She had JARVIS asking her if she's ok, she tried to convince him she's fine but he still kept asking if he can monitor her body levels to check but she refused realising that he'd probably detect her pregnancy. Or would he? She wanted to ask but then that would just ruin her secrecy.

So she helped with what she could with everyone and everything going on but she rarely saw the Avengers. As Steve said, now it's been confirmed its Loki they had more to do plus fighting against the government, people hated them, they had enough on their plates.

Four days after everything all when to shit. Four days since Evie found out she was pregnant. On the 10th April, Evie decided it was time to confront Loki.

She had decided that she needs to stay with him; she just needs to actually tell him that.

She took a deep breath and then knocked. There was no answer. She wasn't surprised, so went to grab the key hidden behind the fire extinguisher – they really needed to find a better place for that – and let herself inside.

"Regalis?" she called out as she walked in, more hesitantly: "Loki?"

She wasn't surprised to have no answer. He had said that she wouldn't be able to find him, but she had hoped if she came alone maybe he'd know somehow.

Now how the hell was she supposed to know how to find him?

She wandered around the apartment for a few minutes, looking for him or a hint. She even looked in the closet just in case. Instead she found a large pile of black boxes which she couldn't open. Before she fell down onto the bed groaning in annoyance, "Loki you _bastard_! Where the hell are you?!"

"Right here."

Evie jumped in shock and fell out of the bed glaring up as Loki stood in the middle of the circle of runes on the floor looking down at her with a raised eyebrow. He was wearing normal human clothes, a deep red long sleeved shirt with blue skinny jeans. It looked quite strange to see Loki in normal clothes.

He extended a hand to help her up. Evie considered ignoring it, she's still angry after all, but she's gonna have to get over it so she reached up and took his hand. He was obviously so surprised that he forgot to actually pull her up for a second.

Once she was standing she immediately stepped back leaving twice the needed space between two people, "You're not meant to be here." she told him as if he didn't know.

Loki chuckled, "If you had come with the Avengers you would not have found me. But you came alone so you can find me. If you didn't expect to find me why _did_ you come?"

"To find _something_."

Loki nodding in understanding, he glanced around looking almost nervous and very unsure about himself suddenly. For a split second he looked vulnerable but that was gone as quickly as it had come, leaving Evie wondering if she had seen it.

"Did you tell them?"

Evie rose an eyebrow but shook her head, "No."

"It was Irene then."

Loki grabbed a pencil and a pad and starting writing something, Evie stepped slightly closer so that she could read over his shoulder but as Regalis he was too tall, as Loki he's a giant so she stepped back to wait. When he was done he turned it towards Evie.

**You have a listening device attached to you. They suspect me. Get changed I have some of your clothes in my room; leave those ones in the wardrobe beside the boxes.**

Evie blinked and nodded and immediately turned going to his large wardrobe to get changed.

When she came out wearing different clothes she stared at Loki for a moment questioningly and eventually he nodded so Evie closed the wardrobe door and glared at Loki.

"How the hell did you get into our apartment?" Evie demanded. Loki froze at the anger in her tone, for some reason he wasn't expecting that to be her first question, but then he laughed.

He stepped towards her; Evie froze taking a subconscious step back. Loki rose an eyebrow waiting patiently until Evie stepped closer again and Loki lightly took her wrist in his large cold hands, which felt a just that little bit colder now that Evie knows who he is.

"_This_," Loki he fingered the black braided bracelet he had given her months ago now.

Evie pulled her wrist form his just so that she could look at it closer as if expecting it to start glowing again, "Huh, so it's magical?"

Loki nodded, "If one of us in is danger the others will warm and I shall be able to teleport to you or vise visa. Plus we can teleport to each other in any situation; I had hoped I would land outside the door so I would not be noticed but that-"

"Failed." Evie answered and Loki chuckled.

"Exactly."

"You said the other?" Evie added, "There are two bracelets?" Loki looked sheepish and held out his arm and rolled up the sleeve of his shirt, Evie noticed the scars but now she knew where they were truly from she felt slightly less worried.

When there was no bracelet on his arm Evie rose an eyebrow in question looking back up at Loki as if expecting it to be hanging off his nose. Loki ran his other hand across his wrist where a brown and green braided bracelet suddenly became visible.

Evie blinked trying to take in what she had just seen, "What are they made of?"

"Yours is made of my robe and hair."

"Of course. And yours?" Evie's eyes widened and she touched her hair self-consciously, "Not _my_ hair?!"

Loki nodded and chuckled at her stricken expression, "Do not worry, I had it grown back exactly how I had cut it."

"You cut my hair?!" Evie yelled sending him a death glare.

Loki's eyes widened at the anger in her tones, "Yes. I apologise, I didn't think you would mind if I made it grow back."

"My..._hair_." Evie paused, swallowed and rolled her eyes, "You cut my hair, course you did. Loki, you seem to have fit in perfectly with humans somehow, but _that_ is not an ok thing to do."

"Right." Loki mentally stored that bit of information, "Sorry."

Evie shook her head, "It's fine. Just...warn me first next time yeah?" Loki nodded in agreement. "So what's Irene done?"

"There have been agents watching me every time I leave the apartment."

"That's your own fault for mentioning Avatar!"

Loki allowed himself to look sheepish, "It was worth it to see her reaction."

Evie rolled her eyes, "You're an idiot you know that right?"

"Uh..." Loki shrugged helplessly and Evie laughed.

"C'mon. We need to talk and I need a drink." Evie ordered walking past him into the living room; Loki stood awkwardly for a moment looking around unsure what to do. As Evie went into the kitchen she realised she had just told the God of Mischief what to do. He did it though, joining her in the living room. "Hm you did as I said, I thought mere mortals were below you and should kneel." Evie commented getting herself a can of coke from the fridge.

Loki paused, "You are different."

"How?"

"Everything about you."

Evie smiled softly, "Drink?"

Loki nodded, "I'll have a beer."

Evie giggled slightly at how strange that sounded from the Asgardian God. "I can probably go steal some Asgardian alcohol from Thor if you want? It'll be strong and nicer I guess for you, once sip for me and I can't remember what I did all night, and stronger would b-"

Loki sighed waving his hand and Evie was silenced, she glared at him, "It's much easier to be able to use that now." Loki commented, "An earth beer will be fine." He waved his hand again and Evie could speak. "Are you sure you do not want wine or something? You are obviously nervous."

"I'm sure." She sat down on the couch and Loki moved to sit beside her, "I'm not scared of you, if that's what you're thinking. This is just..." she shrugged, "Weird."

Loki swallowed and nodded, smiling softly as they sat in an awkward silence for a minute.

"So, you returned." Loki spoke up eventually.

"I did." Evie nodded, "Look, I don't exactly approve of the killing innocent people, but I like the idea of ruling the Earth. Giving Mutants power. But that's not why I'm back."

Loki rose an eyebrow, "Why you have returned then?"

"I'm pregnant."

The beer thumped onto the floor and the liquid started pooling out but Loki didn't seem to notice, he just stared at Evie looking gobsmacked. "Oh."

"Yeah." Evie took a nervous sip of her coke unsure what else to do; she looked down at the beer, should she clean it up?

"When?" His voice pulled her away from the beer and she looked back up to Loki, he had an unreadable expression in his eyes but he was staring so hard into her eyes that she shivered.

"What?"

"When did you find out?"

"4 days ago. I realised I was late, like _very_ late and I'm _never_ late so I started thinking about it and I took a test and...well I am. Thought about it for a few days and decided this kid deserves to have his or her father around and that I kinda wanna be here."

"Late?" Loki asked and Evie sent him an odd look.

"My period."

"Ah." Loki paused awkwardly; he didn't seem to know what to say, so instead he just stared at her considering for over a minute. Evie started to shift feeling uncomfortable under his gaze, she tried to work out what he was thinking but she could barely read him on a normal day let alone now, eventually he broke into a grin, "Evie that is magnificent news."

Evie paused with the glass halfway to her mouth, "Is it?"

Loki blinked, "Of course. To have a child is more than I could wish for."

"But what about whatever the hell your plans are?"

"Well we will have to alter my plans for you."

"_Plans. For. Me._" Evie's eyes narrowed and she sat up higher, "What are they?"


	23. Beginning of the End

Loki hesitated, she's literally only just about chosen him over the Avengers so was she ready?

He decided to tell her some of it, nothing that would ruin his plans, "I planned for you to take on Captain America in the fight." He admitted to her. Evie froze and her eyes narrowed further.

"You planned for me to fight my _boyfriend_?!" Evie yelled slamming the glass onto the table, "I can't decide whether you're a sociopath or a psychopath!"

"There are clear differences between them, I am obivou-"

"_No_. I'm not fighting Steve." Evie interrupted quickly.

Loki shrugged, "Well you cannot now. We can't risk our child."

Evie looked shocked, "So you assume I want it."

Loki's eyes narrowed, "You _do not_?"

"I didn't say that."

"What are you saying then?"

Evie shrugged, "I don't know! You're a God Rega-Loki! I'm having your kid!" She waved her hands about frantically, as if trying to grab hold of the answer in the air, "A _Demi-God_! I'm not completely sure how I'm supposed to react to this! What are the protocols?"

Loki wasn't sure what to say. Evie did that to him a lot, left the man with a silver tongue speechless.

"I won't get an abortion. I couldn't do that. But I just don't know what I supposed to do right now."

He scooted closed and reached out to take her hand glad when she didn't tense or move away, "Stay with me. Be my Queen." He lightly pressed his other hand on her stomach, "We can have our Prince or Princess."

"I just," Evie hesitated; she pulled her hand out of his grip and took a sip of her drink to give her time to think about what she wants to say. "I don't know what to do but I know I want this. _You_. It's just the innocent people. Not it's not even that, it's the Avengers. My friends."

"It will be worth it in the end." Loki promised.

Evie slowly nodded scooting closing to Loki slowly, he didn't move, he stayed relaxed as if he's coaching in a frighten animal. He stayed that way until Evie reached his side; she put her hand on his cheek lightly brushing it with her thumb, "Your eyes. They're a different colour but look like Regalis."

"That is because _I am_ Regalis."

Evie nodded and released his cheek, turning to her and slowly lent into his side. Loki smiled and put his arm around her shoulders.

"Thank you Evie." He spoke softly.

"What for?" Evie looked up at him but he was staring forward at the burning fireplace almost mesmerised in the flames.

"Returning. Being here. I do not know." Loki felt soppy and stupidly sentimental by just _thinking_ that but it's true. If love is for children then he must be a child because he's in love with Evie. It's stupid and _weak_ but too late now.

"Don't thank me yet. I'm not doing it for you or me. I'm doing it for our kid."

"I understand. Still, you could have kept this from me. I'm glad you didn't."

"You think I would want to raise the kid of a God on my own? I'm not Mary!"

"Mary?" Loki pulled his eyes from the flames and frowned at her, "Who's Mary? Oh, the Virgin Mary?"

Evie chuckled; "Now I hear the resemblance to Thor." she shook her head and broke eye contact, "Doesn't matter. Just, I wouldn't know what to do."

"You would have Thor."

"Are you trying to convince me to go?" Loki started to quickly shake his head but Evie laughed to show she's not being serious, "Yeah but soon as the other Avengers find out about us, you think they'll still talk to me? Thor would only because this is his Niece or Nephew." Loki frowned at the reminder of Thor being his brother. "Why do you hate Thor so much? I mean, he didn't know you were adopted, he only loved you."

"He is like Odin."

Evie rose an eyebrow, "What makes you say that?"

"He will rule like Odin does."

"I can't say I know much about Odin but I do know that Thor is compassionate."

"He's a warrior."

"A compassionate warrior." Loki scowled at Evie and she shrugged, "It's true. Have you actually ever seen him with just humans? With poptart? _Oh_!"

"What?" Loki tilted his head to the side in question.

"You never having pancakes make sense now. Actually a lot of things about you make sense now."

"Oh? Like what?"

"Just the way you act, speak, the fighting, I assume those scars are from getting daemons?"

Loki blinked and nodded, "How are you aware about the blood and the daemons?"

Evie paused, realising at that moment that's she's actually betraying the Avengers, she's about to give him the knowledge that she has but she didn't care. If she wants him to win then he should have the information, so she explained.

Loki sighed heavily, "I give him what he wants and yet he doesn't stay silent."

"What? Who? _Thor_?"

Loki shook his head, "The man who creates the daemons. That is also why I have been quite tired lately, traveling across planets without a proper source of energy or a link it is...exhausting."

"Understandable." Evie hesitated looking up towards Loki catching his eye again, "So...am I daemonised?"

Loki paused and blinked, "Sorry?"

"Am I daemonised?" Evie repeated patiently, "Thor told me all about them. And I know on some level I should feel guilty that I'm cheating on Steve but I don't. I mean when he's all sweet and amazing. I love him and I do feel guilty but..." she trailer off and Loki hesitated, "Look I'm already pissed at you, that won't make it worse."

Slowly, cautiously, Loki nodded, "Yes."

Evie sagged unsure if she's disappointed or not, "Why can't Thor sense it?"

"The bracelet. It also acts as a..." Loki struggled to find the word. "It makes the Daemon unseen."

"A perception filter?" Evie offered, "Like the TARDIS?"

"The TARDIS?"

"I need to get you into Doctor Who..." Evie sighed, "Not the point, um. Right. Why me?"

Loki shrugged, "At first it was because you know the Avengers. I thought that inside knowledge is always helpful. But I quickly realised you are careful with what you say so I decided to daemonise you. Maybe get you to tell me about them, but we grew close. You said we're friends. When we kissed...I have never felt anything like it before and I knew whether or not you are useful in my plan, that I want you." Loki swallowed and shrugged, "I love you Evie, and I mean it." He really does, he never believed he'd say those words and mean it to anyone except his brother. He never thought he'd mean it non-platonically.

"Whether you are daemonised or not."

Evie nodded, "What would happen if I...became un-daemonised?"

Loki noticed she avoids taking note of his feelings, "You would feel guilty." He answered eventually, "Well, it is hard to explain but Thor has told you about the daemons correct?" Evie nods, "It doesn't change exactly how you feel like a love spell would have done but it does cause you to lose your sense of good and bad. So you know on some level but slowly it begins to merge. You don't understand _why_ it should be so bad if it makes you feel good yes?" Evie nods again, "Which by doing these things allows the chance for your feelings to grow. Such as without the daemon you would not have continued with me, so your feelings for me – which I'm assuming exist – wouldn't have come without the daemon because you wouldn't let them. But they were there ready to grow anyway."

Evie nodded in understanding, "What about the innocent people dying? Because I know it's bad and I don't exactly want them to, but at the same time I don't really care it's only the Avengers I care about hurting. Steve."

Loki nodded, "Without the daemon the thought of hurting an innocent, you would probably be aghast at, but with the daemon you understand that you cannot make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. And this omelette will be the best damn omelette you've ever tasted."

Evie giggled and Loki grinned, "So when did I get...daemonised?"

"When we first kissed. Almost two months ago now."

"What's happened with the Smoke Daemons?"

"The smoke daemons cause the infected to trust those they did not before trust – me – and my blood is used to control them and when I released the boxes I told them who _not_ to trust."

"Ah." Evie nodded in understanding, "The other two are...air daemons and water daemons?"

Loki nodded, "Yes. I have quite a few batches of them."

"Those three will leave your system eventually right?" Evie asked curiously, Loki nodded again, "Why won't the kiss daemon?"

"Because that is created differently to the others, it's in some way easier to create but Na'qut can only make a few. The rest he can make batches – an army. The Kiss Daemon is more of a _physical_ thing where are the others are not."

Evie considered, thinking about it and then nodded, "When's the next new moon?"

Loki hesitated; he didn't want to tell her encase she leaves and gets rid of it. He won't see her again, but he couldn't keep it from her, she'll just look it up. "Tonight I believe."

Evie nodded, "I can't go home tonight then. We were all gonna hold hands and stuff when midnight strikes."

Loki barely held back a satisfied grin, "So you do not wish to remove it?"

Evie shrugged, "I don't really care. I mean, if I remove it I'm gonna have so many...feelings I guess. And I don't really want them."

Loki smirked, "Good, does that mean I have you all night?"

Evie hesitated, she looked up to him, his face his longer, cheekbones higher, longer hair, in some ways he's a lot sexier but he's different.

And then she caught his eyes, they're green but he's Regalis. She could see Regalis inside those eyes so clearly.

So she grinned and pulled him into a kiss, "That you do. Regaki."

Loki chuckled at the new name and lent into the kiss. "Except at midnight," he added pulling away from her, Evie rose an eyebrow.

"You would die for me?"

Loki paused, he hadn't exactly thought about that before he said it but he knew he would. She was the only person in all the nine realms and further than he would willingly die for. "Yes." He answered honestly and Evie grinned pulling him in for another deep kiss.

After a few minutes she turned her phone off decided to make up an excuse tomorrow and turned back to Loki.

His kiss felt the same but different, he tasted the same like ice and chocolate. His hands ran up and down her body, they were smoother than Regalis, his fingers longer. His entire body felt different, he's skinner less muscled but the way he touched her, the magic at his fingertips, that was the same.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"So where'd you get the name Regalis Diev from? Is it Asgardian?" Evie asked a while later running her hands up and down his bare chest. She was leaning into and he hand one arm around the back of her as they lay in the bed comfortable, warm and very naked.

"It's Latvian for Mischief God." He answered off-handed.

"Of course it is." Evie muttered her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Why did you choose Latvian of _all_ languages?"

"On my way to New York I met a Latvian man. Plus it sounded the best of all the names I thought of."

"And Theodore? Another guy you met?"

Regalis nodded a small smile on his face, "He has a wife named Grace. Hence my shock at your middle name."

"Ah. Right." She fell silent thinking deeply trying to absorb it all, this was too much information at once but she needed more, "What do I do now?"

Loki tensed, "What do you mean?"

"Should I leave Steve? I mean if we're gonna fight against the Avengers I can't exactly still be with him."

"Evie," Loki paused, he knew what he wanted to say that she has to leave him but he truly loves Evie, she's different somehow, she's amazing and he cannot force her to do anything. So he sighed, "It is completely your decision. I must tell you if you leave him right now he may work out why and who I am, that cannot happen for a few more weeks at least."

"Why?"

Loki looked apologetic, "I'm sorry Evie but I can't tell you yet."

Evie's eyes narrowed, "Why?"

"You could be here undercover."

"_What_?" Evie pulled away from Loki, pulling the cover with her and glaring at him. Loki sighed and turned to his side to face her.

"You may have told the Avengers and they want you here undercover, get to know my plan and be able to fight back."

"I'm not-"

"You had a recording device hidden on your person."

Evie frowned, "I wasn't aware of that."

"You did look pretty shocked but I will tell you my plan when I believe you are ready."

Evie sighed and moved closer to him again and kissed his chest, "You'll tell me at some point?"

"I will."

Evie grinned and moved to straddle him.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Evie woke up the next morning; she was disorientated for a few seconds in the dark bedroom. She usually woke once the sun was quite high streaming in the large windows; Steve must have asked JARVIS to black out the windows, "JARVIS turn low lights on please?"

"No JARVIS here I'm afraid." a voice beside her made her jump and she turned around to see Loki grinning at her, his hair tousled, half his face had red marks across it and his eyes heavy with sleep with obvious amusement shining through. She couldn't help but be shocked at that; she was half expecting his morning hair to be absolutely perfect but she thinks that she prefers this. He seems more _human_.

Evie smiled slowly as everything came back to her. Last night.

She could feel that satisfying ache pulsing through her body, "G'morning." she murmured, "Got a bit confused there."

"I assumed." he pulled her closer into a kiss, one hand rubbing her back and the other holding her cheek.

Evie wrapped both her arms around his shoulders, but after a minute she pulled away leaving him frowning at her, "C'mon, if we go again I don't think I'll be able to walk."

He chuckled and nodded allowing her to pull away. As she climbed out of bed she took a moment to realise this is the first time in a week she didn't feel sick. That was definitely nice. "Oh yeah, would our kid develop faster than a normal kid?" Evie asked Loki curiously as she pulled on the closest shirt.

Loki glanced over at her with a curious look, "I do not think so. Why?"

"Just cause I've been getting morning sickness but it's only been able two weeks since when I assume conception was, that's pretty early I think."

Loki shrugged, "I'm sorry but I do not know. I mean, an Asgardian child develops similar to humans but as I'm not Asgardian I wouldn't know."

Evie nodded in understanding, "Well everything else seems normal, I need to book a Doctor's appointment soon to get it checked out."

Loki frowned, that seems very domestic, "Alright."

Evie nodded and bent down to her trousers to get her phone and turn it on, immediately blasted with over 100 text messages and voicemail messages.

"Crap." she muttered, most of them were from Irene, "Sorry, need to call her back if you don't mind?"

Loki shrugged, "Go ahead."

"_WHERE THE FUCK WERE YOU LAST NIGHT_?" Irene demanded before Evie even had the chance to comprehend that she had picked up the phone.

Shit. She needed an excuse. "Regalis was ill." she stated the first thing that came to her head, Loki turned to face her, a questioning look on his face and Evie shrugged helplessly.

"Yeah! Bloody _Regalis_! That bastard! Evie _one_ new moon a _month_! Something's wrong with you! You might be daemonised and we wanted to _check_ but we couldn't find you and we were _worried_! You weren't answering your phone or anything! Anything coulda happened to you! Loki could have found you and Gods knows..._raped_ you or something." Loki's eyebrows rose further and Evie had to stifle a laugh at his horrified expression, "Or have you forgotten he knows where we all live? We were so distracted looking for you it got past midnight and none of us have checked if we're daemonised or even _slept_!"

Evie stayed silent a moment waiting for more until she was sure Irene was done, "Rene, I'm so sorry. I just couldn't leave him, he was really ill, moaning and coughing, I just forgot to call or text. I'm sorry."

"Like hell you are." Irene sighed, "I'll tell them you're safe. You might wanna call the tower, they're probably worried too."

"Alright, sorry again."

Irene just cut off and Evie turned to Loki, "Raped you, that's a new one." He muttered, "I know they're probably expecting maybe kill, torture, capture. But _rape_? Never."

Evie frowned slightly, "I notice you're not saying that with kill, torture, capture?"

Loki smirked at her and stepped closer, "Never to you." He whispered.

That was good enough for Evie and she kissed him back; when she pulled away she shrugged at him, "God knows what goes through Irene's head." Loki chuckled, "Right gotta ring the tower."

"Sure." Loki blinked and watched as Evie repeated the same apologises to Pepper and Bruce, they were the only two in last night and hadn't been able to get in contact with Steve which was lucky 'cause he would have gone crazy to find her.

Once that was done she turned to Loki, "_Damnit_."

"What's wrong?" Loki asked curiously.

"I need to get to work. Damn. Completely forgot. I'm late!"

Loki laughed, "Alright, go. I might come down and see you later."

"You better, although make sure Rene's not there. She might castrate you." Loki winced his hands going automatically to protect himself.

Soon after Evie arrived at the library Irene stormed in, she went straight to Evie pushing past some couple in her way and slapped Evie hard and then pulled her into a hug.

Evie stood shell-shocked for a moment, before hugging her back. "Evie, I was so worried about you." Irene murmured.

"Rene, I'm fine," Evie whispered shocked at her reaction.

"I thought-" Irene cut herself off and hugged Evie tighter making Evie need to gasp for breath, "I was just so worried. Everythings that's going on...if you were hurt-"

Evie was shocked, she hadn't realised Irene was actually _scared_, she thought Irene was just angry. "I'm really sorry. I hadn't realised you were that worried."

"Course you didn't." Irene pulled away and wiped at her eyes, "You're safe it's fine. We just didn't know- I mean," Irene shrugged helplessly. "He knows where we live. I don't know why he came to us. He could be watching us because we know the Avengers."

"I'm sorry." Evie repeated, "I didn't realise it was the new moon last night."

"It's fine. We'll just have to wait another month. I'm just glad you're ok." Irene kissed her cheek. "Sorry. I couldn't bear it if something happened to you."

"I know, I really am sorry." Evie meant it this time. If she had known how upset this would make Irene she would have at least _thought_ about texting her with some random excuse.

"I should get to work. Just, please never, _ever_ do that again ok?"

"Ok. Love you Rene-y."

"Love you too."

When Regalis walked into the library later that day and greeted her like one would a close friend/lover, it took Evie a moment for it to click exactly _who_ he is. When she looked into his eyes however, they were green, "Now that, is weird." she commented making him laugh.

The next few days got worse; Thor explained that it was spreading quickly, more people were being smoke daemonised. It also didn't help that people are very sceptical to other people's opinion and slowly the supporters of the Avengers seemed to change their minds and become against them.

There were a few more conferences but it wasn't going well for the Avengers nor Evie or anyone that was affiliated with the Avengers. Random people would come into the library, recognise Evie and leave. Occasionally there were a few people that would come into the library tell Evie that they're supporters and then leave.

The Avengers were loathed and people weren't afraid to show it, they would gang up on the street, they would yell at them tell them how it's their fault people died last time.

They went from being loved and followed for autographs to hated and followed to kill. They stayed in the tower but continued to do their rounds when possible. Continued to look for Loki and try and stop this.

Evie hadn't seen any of the Avengers except Pepper in 3 days when Thor came into the library. This was the second time he's been since the fight in Washington, quite a few people turned and stared at the very large man.

One man yelled at him to get the fuck out, another woman yelled at that guy for his language and 'There's children here!'

Evie told them both to be quiet or leave.

"Evie, greetings." He boomed making people turn around and glare.

"Hey Thor, you might wanna talk a bit quieter," Evie grinned, "What's up? How's everything going?"

Thor shrugged his ginormous shoulders, "I was doing my rounds and wished to check on you. Steve is working elsewhere and I understood he was worried."

Same excuse as last time, Evie had a strong suspicion of exactly _why_ he was here and that reason walked through the door right then.

She barely managed to keep her eyes on Thor as Regalis strolled through the doorway like he owns the place, grinning at her like she's the only thing he can see, "I'm fine. I can protect myself." she told Thor calmly.

"Loki is dangerous, strong and clever. A _trickster_. You must be careful. You must avoid being smoke daemonised." Thor warned reaching out to put his hand on hers. Evie looked up into his eyes; they were warm, soft and _sincere_. But then she very quickly glanced past Thor where Regalis stood eyes dramatically wide as he stared at the back of Thor's head.

He lifted a hand reaching to the top of Thor's head and mouthed 'he's bloody tall'. Evie had to bite her lip to stop herself from laughing.

"I will be. I promise you I'm safe." she managed to get out without laughing.

Regalis then began to jump silently as if trying to see over Thor's head. Evie swallowed and forced herself to ignore him and realised Thor was speaking. "Sorry, I got distracted. What were you saying?"

Thor frowned at her, "I was telling you that Loki could be anyone. You need to make sure to be wary of strangers."

"Don't worry Thor; I won't take candy from strangers."

Thor rose an eyebrow in question "I didn't mention candy? I doubt Loki would uh...lure you in with candy."

Above Thor's head a large lolly pop appeared and Evie snorted making Thor look even more confused, Evie managed – barely – to sober up, "Sorry, just remembered a joke," she shrugged, "Yeah. I'll be careful don't worry."

Thor nodded and made to leave, Regalis paused in what he was doing, the lolly pop disappeared and he quickly put on a face of bored patient's. Thor noticed him as he glanced around, "Ah. I apologise."

Regalis shrugged and slowly looked up into Thor's face his eye's widening as if shocked, "Oh my good Lord! You're _him_ aren't you! Thor?! The Norse God and _Avenger_?!"

Thor nodded warily, random people who recognised him had been less friendly than they were two weeks ago, "I am."

"Wow, wow, _wow_! I mean I knew Evie knew the Avengers and all but this is so _cool_!" He was waving his hands about in excitement and sounded like a typical tourist and Evie bit the inside of her lip trying not to laugh.

"You know Evie?" Thor asked curiously glancing between the two.

"Thor," Evie spoke up wincing at the pain in her lip, "This is my good friend Regalis."

Thor's eyes widened slightly with recognition. Evie knew she hadn't told him about Regalis so someone has and that could mean her suspicions are correct, the reason he's coming here is to check that Regalis is safe. She fingered the bracelet that Loki had given her as Thor greeted Regalis.

"Mycroft has mentioned you." Thor murmured looking Regalis up and down.

"Evie's friend Mycroft?" Regalis asked glancing to Evie who shrugged but she knew _exactly_ what Mycroft had said and why.

"Well I doubt it was _the_ Mycroft Holmes but you never know." Evie muttered sarcastically making both men chuckle.

"Well, pleasure to meet you Regalis." Thor held out his hand to shake. Regalis looked at it, he knew his brother well enough to know that Thor will grip his hand painfully hard but he couldn't ignore it, he had to play the polite friend of Evies so he took the hand. Thor held it tightly and usually it wouldn't hurt but Loki had to resist the urge to use his own strength against Thor so he winced and Thor allowed a small satisfied smile on his face.

"And you." Regalis nodded.

After Thor had bid them both a goodbye and left Evie burst out laughing, "That was weird." she muttered, "You're a seriously awesome actor."

"I'm the God of Lies and Mischief; I think if I was a bad actor I wouldn't be a great liar."

Evie tried to scowl at him but she was grinning to hard, "Still though, acting like an excited fan-boy!" she giggled. "This is so weird y'know. Where'd that lolly pop go? I don't mind you luring me in with candy."

Evie winked Loki chuckled and pulled it out of his pocket, "It's not real but you can eat it, it'll just disappear from your stomach after a while."

Evie shrugged, "Then I won't gain weight! Can you make all food like this?"

Loki shook his head, "You won't gain the protein or whatever humans need to survive."

Evie scowled but then took the offered lolly pop with a grin. Regalis chuckled and winked at her before turned and going to look at some books.

Then of course Steve decided to be her third visitor of the day. Evie was sorting out some books when she saw him come in, she glanced over to where Regalis was reading a few tables away and then back to Steve who walked into the room looking around. She waved and he grinned coming to join her. She removed the lollypop she had been sucking on to kiss him in greeting.

"Hello." Evie greeted him smiling, out of the corner of her eye she could see Regalis staring at them. "How's it all going?" she replaced the lolly pop and tried to speak around it.

"Uh...ok I guess. Tony convinced them to let us have a break so he could go see Pepper and I could come see you and take you out for lunch?"

Evie smiled softly, "That sounds great-"

Evie cut herself off as Steve started glaring over her shoulder, she glanced around to see Regalis walking towards them. He put his hand on her shoulder and grinned too cheerfully at Steve.

"Captain. _Pleasure_ to see you again." Regalis spoke, his voice laced with sarcasm.

"I wish I could say the say." Steve spat.

Evie sighed, "C'mon, no fighting." she turned to Regalis, "I'm going for lunch with Steve," she would have asked him to join her but one look at Steve told her that it would be a bad idea so she didn't, "Want me to take that book out before we go?" she gestured at the book he was holding, the last in the Chaos series.

"No thank you, I'll continue reading it here."

"Alright, I'll probably see you later then." she turned to a scowling Steve, "I'll go grab my bag and clock out for lunch. Don't kill each other." she turned towards the back room, "Yet." she added under her breath.

Steve glanced at Regalis who was smirking, "I told you to stop coming here."

"And I didn't listen to you. What a _surprise_!" Regalis spread his arms wide to increase his meaning.

"Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit."

"And that response is the only used when you have no other response."

Luckily for Steve, Evie came back and grinned at them both, "Shall we?"

Steve nodded and took her hand leading her away from Regalis quickly and swiftly. Evie sent a shrug and a grin to Regalis before attempting to keep up with Steve's long strides.

"Why?" Steve asked once they were outside the library.

Evie blinked confused, "Sorry? Why what?"

"Was he there?"

Evie shrugged, "Why does one usually come into a library?"

Steve sighed, "I don't like him."

"I know but Steve he's my friend. C'mon we haven't fought in a couple of weeks. Let's not start now."

Steve sighed; he knew the reason that they haven't argued was only because he had rarely been home but he didn't say it, instead he nodded. "Yeah."

Lunch went well, they only had a few people yelling insults, one guy did try to stab Steve but he caught him quickly growled out a warning and stalked off.

Once they were seated in the corner of a café Steve began telling Evie the basics of what's been going on at S.H.I.E.L.D.

It wasn't going well with the government at the moment but they were still trying. They're constantly looking for Loki but they have no way to track him especially if he's using a glamour.

Only Thor can sense the daemons and knew Loki would have the un-used daemon's cloaked. Plus with some daemons across New York, Thor had to be careful not to attack a random innocent victim.

Then Steve asked Evie what she's been doing these days, staying with Loki, having sex with Loki, talking to Loki.

She shrugged, "Nothing really, working, reading. Seen Irene, the usual really just been lonely without you."

"I'm sorry."

Evie shrugged, "Don't be silly, you've got a psychopath on the loose." She smirked at the in-joke of calling Loki a psychopath. "I understand that you need to catch him and that of course takes time. Just be careful yeah?"

Steve smiled; he looked almost shy for a split second before it disappeared, "Always." He promised.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Evie couldn't keep it a secret. Not completely.

'When I say I won't tell anyone, that excludes my best friend.' That quote rung through her head and Evie knew where she was going before she had consciously decided.

Irene's office.

She had been keeping her pregnancy from everyone around her, expect Regaki of course, it wasn't too hard not seeing many people, but the morning sickness had come early and JARVIS seemed concerned about her. It had calmed down after the previous week but within the week since telling Loki she had still been sick a few times.

But it was weighing on her; she told Irene _everything_ the very moment after it happened. So she had to tell her, Irene had to know. Everyone can suck it but Irene's different, even though they hadn't been getting along very well. If this had been a slightly different situation she would have called Irene _before_ talking to said father.

But of course she couldn't, _shouldn't_. This was Loki's kid; Irene loves Steve like a brother and doesn't approve of the cheating, _hates_ it even. So she probably wouldn't approve that she's gone further with Loki, or as Irene knows, Regalis, but Evie would ask her to be the Godmother and Irene would _have_ to approve of that, wouldn't she?

Well no matter what, they're best friends and always have been, she can't just not want to be friends just because she's having someone else's kid than the man approves off.

She made it to the building; it was just a small simple building in New York named 'Thompsons Physiatrist Centre'

Inside was almost like a dentist but with more comfortable chairs, a nicer flower like smell and a warmer atmosphere.

"Evie." the receptionist greeted, a dark skinned woman with dark eyes and straightened hair. There was a note of distrust in her voice but Evie ignored it. Jan? Janette? Jemma? Jenny? Something with a J.

"Hey!" Evie greeted walking towards her, 'Hello my name is Jasmine.' Evie read on her name badge.

_Jasmine_! Evie knew it's a J!

"Haven't seen you in a while, how's it all going? I've heard of what's happening, apparently the Avengers have gone bad or something."

Evie sighed, "Nope, that's all some lie." It took Evie a moment to realise that she wasn't just _playing_ double agent she really was one, on both sides. Helping the Avengers and helping Loki.

"Alright," Jasmine grinned at her, "Irene only has one more patient. She should be done in 20 minutes if you'd like to take a seat."

"Thanks." Evie did that and pulled out her phone to play games as she did she thought of what she was about to do. She _had_ to tell someone, she couldn't keep this a secret, she's _pregnant_.

Finally the office door opened and Irene said goodbye to a small mouse-y looking man and noticed Evie.

"Evie!" Irene sounded happy for a moment before her eyes narrowed, "You never visit me at work. What's wrong?"

"I need to talk." Evie stated hugging her in greeting; it had been a week since they last saw each other.

"Oh?" Irene looked concerned keeping one hand on Evie's arm, "Lunch talk or office talk?"

"Extremely private so, office talk."

"I'll have to charge you." Irene grinned to show she was joking then looked towards Jasmine. "Hey Jas do I have any more appointments?"

"Not until two."

"Awesome, thanks." Irene turned back to Evie gesturing to her small office, "We have two hours," she walked in first holding the door open for Evie. A habit extending from that most patients didn't feel safe with someone walking behind them.

Evie looked around; she had only actually been _inside_ the office once, after Irene got it. It was an average sized room rectangle shaped room, with a large window on the right side, spilt into 12 small windows all opaque so it was hard to see through. A long table sat by the left wall with various papers placed on. There were two large comfy looking brown chairs sitting opposite each other in the middle of the room, a large couch beside them. A smaller coffee table sat by both chairs and couch, each had a lamp on. The wall opposite the door held a book shelve full of book and tapes.

"Drink?" Irene offered.

"Water please." Irene poured her a drink and handed it to her as Evie sat down on the long couch curling up in the corner one hand resting protectively on her stomach.

Irene sat down on the chair opposite Evie and looked her up and down, "Lemon Sherbet?" she offered holding out the pot.

Evie smirked and took one, "We don't need an ice breaker Rene-y."

Irene shrugged, "Habit. So, if this about what we're doing tomorrow?"

Evie rose an eyebrow in question, there was something planned for tomorrow? "Tomorrow?" Evie repeated in confusion.

Irene frowned concerned, "You're birthday?" Evie's eyes widened, "You forgot your own birthday?"

Evie shrugged, "A lot on my mind?"

Irene sighed, this must be extremely serious then, Evie was usually jumping up and down 364 days before her birthday! "What's up then?"

"Want me to lie down?" Evie asked amused, Irene laughed and rolled her eyes.

"Do whatever you want Evie, but you're scaring me. I know your changing the subject for a reason."

Evie sighed, took a sip of her drink to stall and then took a deep breath. "I'm pregnant." Irene dropped her own cup of water. Evie's hand shot out and caught the water mid-air with her mutant powers, the cup floated in the small bubble of water. She moved it slowly towards the sink to pour it down the drain. "Can people stop dropping things please?"

"You're _what_?!" Irene yelled, Evie wasn't sure what tone she said that in but Irene stood up and pulled Evie into a standing position to hug her tightly so Evie assumed it was a good tone. "Evie! This is fantastic! You and Steve will be fantastic par-" Irene cut off and pulled backwards, her hands still on Evie's arms, "It's not Steve's is it?" Evie mutely shook her head. "Evie you _idiot_!"

Irene lifted a hand and slapped Evie hard across the cheek. Evie gasped and fell backwards in shock.


	24. Daemon War

Evie held a hand up to her cheek in shock, her other arm covered her belly protectively and she quickly moved around the couch to keep it between them. Irene stared at her hand like it had committed a great crime without her own input. Evie glared at Irene as if she expected Irene to slap her again or worse.

She felt something wet at her cheek and glanced at it to realised Irene's nails had cut her.

"What the _hell_ was _that_?!" Evie yelled but when Irene looked away from her hand to Evie, her eyes hardened.

"No. You cheated on _Steve_! You can't keep it." Irene yelled as if she hadn't just slapped her best friend.

"_What_? Irene you just _slapped_ me."

"I don't care. You can't keep it."

"_No_! I'm _not_ getting rid of it!"

"_Evie_. You'll lose the Avengers."

"Screw them! I can't have an abortion. I thought you'd be _happy_! I didn't expect _that_ reaction!"

"_Happy_? That my best friend slut'ed it up with some _idiot_?"

"_Slut_?!" Evie yelled, "_You_ are calling _me_, a slut? I've slept with what? _Two_ guys my _entire_ life! Jacob and Regalis! How many have _you_ slept with?"

Irene paused and cocked her head to the side, "You and Steve haven't slept together yet?"

Evie stopped for a moment, Irene sounded genuinely shocked and curious, Evie didn't know how to react so she answered honestly, "I'd tell you the next day if we had! He has all those traditional values from the forties. I mean we've done _stuff_ but we haven't gone all the way yet."

"Huh. Make sense I guess." Irene nodded and then shook herself out of it, "I've _never_ cheated."

Evie almost laughed at the backtrack to the argument again, but she's more than happy to continue defending her honour. "Doesn't change the fact you're the slut out of us two. Surprised you haven't gotten pregnant yet. Or have you and just had an abortion without telling me?!"

"I wouldn't do that."

"What have an abortion or not tell me? Because if you say you'd never get an abortion then you're being a bloody huge hypocrite." Irene stayed silent. "I just came here because I wanted comfort. I'm _pregnant_ Irene! I dunno what I'm supposed to do!"

"I told you!"

"No. Some actual _helpful_ advice! If not advice then _comfort_!" Evie took a step towards Irene but changed her mind and stepped backwards again, "_Pregnant_ Irene. I've got a baby growing inside of me! I _need_ my best friend right now. Not whoever the hell _you_ are!"

"I can't. I love all the Avengers. You cheated on the best man you could ever meet. How could you? I'm sorry but I don't approve."

"You don't always approve but you're _always_ there for me away." Evie shook her head, "I can't _believe_ I thought I could come to my best friend about this."

"You know I can't keep this a secret right? I can't keep this from Steve. I've told him everything so far he just loves you too much to actually listen!"

"You've _told_ him everything?! I thought I could trust you!"

"And yet until now you've never actually admitting to being with Regalis until now." Evie didn't answer so Irene nodded, "_Exactly_."

Evie shook her head, "Just because you don't trust him."

Irene's eyes narrowed, "You know don't you?" Evie cocked her head to the side in question. "When he mentioned Avatar, you didn't look shocked. You know he's Loki don't you?"

Evie's eyes narrowed, "What the hell? Why would you think _that_?"

"You're working with him."

Irene stepped backward and Evie sighed. She shook her head and turned towards the door, just before she left she turned back to Irene, "You know what? _Screw you_ Irene." With that she left the room slamming the door behind and stormed out of the office.

Once she was gone Irene fell backwards on the nearest chair head in her hands, what the hell just happened?

She hadn't meant to _slap_ Evie. But she just felt so angry she didn't _care_. _Why_ would Evie do that? Cheat on Steve! Cheat on _anyone_! And then expect her to be _happy_ about it?

Irene had known Evie's been cheating since the beginning; she knew Steve knows but he had preferred to stay oblivious and pretend Irene's wrong because he loves Evie _that_ much. But Evie goes and has _sex_ with another man and is excited over the prospect of a kid with this other man, while she's _still with_ Steve! Irene couldn't believe it. She wanted to slap Evie silly until she realises what the hell is going on here!

Irene was 90% sure that Regalis is not who he says he is, but now, she's 99.9% sure. Evie knows the truth. She had discussed this with Sherlock and Mycroft, Mycroft told them what he had told Thor and that Thor has been trying to get a good look at Regalis. He finally succeeded a few days ago but Regalis just seemed like some random normal human guy, he must be hiding something somehow.

"Oh my God." Irene muttered, she _kissed_ him. She hasn't seen Thor since then, except for him flying above them but he's not gonna sense her out of the smoke daemons around in America.

She needs to go to him.

Irene hesitated, did she _want_ to know? They won't be able to trust her and they'll put her in prison so she won't be able to help with anything and although she wasn't exactly _useful_ that didn't mean she was _useless_. Being stuck in a cell would make her feel useless.

But she had slapped her best friend; right now she couldn't care about Evie but what if she hurt one of her patients? She's been fine up until now but what if she clicked; let the daemon out or something.

"I don't know how this works." She muttered to herself, "_Veins_!" she looked down at her wrists shocked to suddenly see them looking black, when had that happened? Thinking about it Irene realised she's been wearing long sleeved shirts lately, subconsciously hiding the blackness of them.

She couldn't risk hurting someone; she had to go see Thor. She stood and ran out of the office; Jasmine was stood just outside the door unsure what she should do.

"What happened?" Jasmine asked. "Are you ok?"

"Cancel all my appointments for today; I've got important Avenger business to attend to." Irene started towards the door but spun around, "I know Evie didn't pay but the same rules go. Anything you heard, keep it quiet."

"Of course."

With that she ran out the office phone in hand trying to get in contact with _someone_ that could get her to the base where she could find Thor.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Evie wasn't really sure what to do, she just ran past Jasmine, out the door and as far as she can. She's scared of Irene. Irene had _never_ hurt her before, and the way she was acting, something was wrong. She knew she could fight against Irene. But that didn't mean she wanted to. Or maybe she did.

She pulled her phone out and dialled Loki's number – the phone she forced him to get the day after he got a picture in the gallery encase the manager needed to contact him. She winced when she put the phone against her ear and it touched her bruised cheek so moved it to the other side.

"**Hello?"** he answered after a few rings. He sounded distracted.

"Irene, I uh-" Evie paused took a breath and stopped to sit down on the steps of the nearest building, "I went to see Irene. Talk to her, she wasn't herself." Evie glanced around and lowered her voice, "You know what you did to me, did you do that to her?" Silence on the other end, "L-Reg?" Evie just about remembered to use his fake name in public, "Regalis?"

"**I did."** Loki admitted slowly.

"Why her?"

"**Can we talk later? I'm a little busy at the moment."** She could hear voices around him; he was in a crowd of people.

Evie sighed but nodded even though he couldn't see her, "Alright, just...you coulda warned me."

"**My deepest apologises."**

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Irene managed to get in contact with Tony, he answered from inside his suit. She could hear the wind rushing around him.

"Tony, where's Thor?"

"Haven't got a clue sweetcheeks. What's up?"

"I think I may be daemonised. I could be wrong but I think that Regalis guy is Loki or working for him or something, and I kissed him cause Evie likes him and I'm not sure exactly of what they're doing but Steve knows everything I know, up until now, but not the point. I kissed him 'cause I do ever since Tom kissed me in seventh grade. I kissed Steve for the same reason, but earlier Evie told me something quite dramatic and I slapped her. Pretty hard actually, and I wouldn't normally and I don't care which is weird but that's kinda what the daemon would do right? So I thought about it and it makes sense. Croft knows some stuff, he told Thor but I haven't actually seen Thor so you never know."

Silence.

"Tony?"

"I now understand when people tell me to speak English." Tony murmured, "I have absolutely _no_ idea what you just said," Irene took a deep breath to repeat herself but Tony interrupted quickly, "But stop right there. I'll come grab you bring you to S.H.I.E.L.D. Thor should be around there...sometimes. Or Y'know, go to the heart of the storm."

Irene almost screamed as Tony suddenly landed beside her on the street, people around them sent them dirty looks, "Stark! What the bloody hell?!" she slapped his arm which she quickly learnt was a bad idea with his suit on, "_Ow_!"

Tony rose an eyebrow, "It's surprising how many people do that, C'mon."

Irene gripped him tightly as they flew into the air, she heard him laugh from inside the suit, "I don't think you'll wanna look down." He commented making Irene want to look down but luckily she was at the wrong position so even if she tried she wouldn't be able to see. Until of course Tony decided to spin around. Irene screamed and Tony laughed. "Don't you _fucking dare_ do that again!" she screamed the wind roaring in her ears.

He dropped her just by the doors, put a passcode in and the doors slid open letting her in before flying off without a word or sarcastic comment.

Irene stood just inside the doors looking around not exactly sure what she should be doing.

So she decided to look for somebody – _anybody_ – she knows. She barely got a few feet when 10 agents suddenly stopped in front of her, various weapons pointed at her face. None of which she recognised, "Who the hell are you?" one of them demanded, he had a slight German accent. He looked tiny but Irene was almost certain he could kill her with his pinkie finger.

Irene froze, staring down the barrel of a gun, "Don't make me ask again."

"Ir-Irene Thompson. I'm friends with the Avengers, Tony just dropped me off." Irene tried to sound confident but not _too_ confident encase they thought she was tricking them, but she was certain that she sounded more terrified than anything else.

One of them started speaking quietly into an ear piece, and then finally nodded at them all and they stood down weapons put away. "You're here looking for the big guy?" the German man asked. Irene nodded hoping he meant Thor but too scared to ask, otherwise he'd probably mean Bruce who would also be great to see. If he meant Fury then she was screwed 'cause that guy is terrifying. "Alright, follow me." he led her through the base, into the main board room where some men in suits were talking to Mycroft; he frowned when he recognised her but nodded in greeting as they passed.

The German agent led her through that room and into a corridor where she had to dodge various agents running about who either didn't notice her or deemed her un-important and un-worthy of being dodged. They reached a lab where Bruce and Thor were talking. Both big guys then, Irene noticed. Bruce was looking an alarming shade of green but the moment he saw her it disappeared and he nodded at her in greeted.

Thor glanced towards her through the window and his eyes widened almost over-dramatically and then he looked unbelievably sad. The agent punched a number into the door and then put his finger print and a retina scan before the door slid open and gestured for Irene to go inside. The doors slid closed behind her, "You know this girl?" The agent demanded of Thor and Bruce.

They both nodded, "Yes. A trusted friend." Bruce told him reached out to take Irene's arm and pull her closer to them, away from the scary agent, which Irene was grateful for.

"Good. Well here you go." With that he stalked off.

"Irene, not that it's not great to see you but what are you doing here?" Bruce asked sounding worried.

"Looking for me." Thor assumed staring at her his eyes wide and sad. Irene nodded.

"So I'm right?" Irene asked, she knew what the answer would be but she had to get it confirmed.

"Yes."

"_Shit_."

"Hold on, _what_?" Bruce spoke up very confused.

"I'm daemonised." Irene sighed; she fell backwards onto a bench, "Crap. What do I do?"

"Hold on what? How when? Who did you kiss?" When Irene rose an eyebrow at Bruce he went bright red, "I just mean so we can know who uh..."

"Regalis." Irene interrupted saving Bruce from digging himself into a hole. "Don't ask why, long story. But he's the only guy I've kissed in months. Well excluding drunk Tony but that was more of a 'What the fucks going on?' so yeah. Regalis."

Thor frowned in thought and Bruce rose an eyebrow, "When is the next New Moon?"

"May 10th." Irene answered automatically. "We were gonna all sit together on the last one but we thought Evie was missing and we missed the deadline. So what happens next?"

"We'll have to keep an eye on you."

"Will I be a prisoner?"

"No, we don't have the time or resources to keep you safe here right now. You can go home but you must be careful, if it can be spared we'll have an agent watching you at all times." Thor answered crossing his arms and leaning back on the desk.

"I'll contact Nat?" Bruce suggested, "She knows S.H.I.E.L.D protocols more than we do."

Thor nodded in agreement and Irene rose an eyebrow, it didn't take long for Natasha to turn up walking silently into the lab. "You're daemonised?" she demanded immediately. Irene nodded. "How long?"

"Over a month I guess. Today was the first sign – that I've actually noticed, I mean I can't think of anything anyone's gotten angry at me for."

"What did you do today?"

Irene hesitated, she was pissed at Evie but no matter what, revealing the full secret to anyone except Steve didn't feel _right_ exactly, "We argued." she admitted eventually, "I slapped her, pretty hard actually, she was bleeding. I was angry and-" Irene cut off and shrugged, "I don't feel bad."

"You seem to be fighting against the daemon very well, I can feel it struggling." Thor added spoke up; there was a note of curiousness in his tone. "Either you are very mentally powerful. Or you have something you're fighting for. Or both."

"But didn't Tony? Or Evie?"

"When Tony found out about it, he didn't think he had anyone that would die for him." Bruce said quietly. Irene gasped. "You know you do. Tony's had a lot of shit happen to him, he hides it, but sometimes in the lab-" Bruce cut off, this wasn't his to tell and the other two seemed to understand that.

"But what about Evie is as well? Doesn't she have something to fight for?"

Thor shook his head, "She is not daemonised. I have seen her many times in the last week alone."

"Alright but hypothetically. What if Regalis _is_ Loki or working for Loki and he's Daemonised Evie and put a...perception filter on her. Evie knows I'll die for her any day. Except maybe today. She knows the twins would as well as Steve. So _why_?"

"If she trust's Regalis, then she trust's Loki. The daemon recognises the one that put it inside her and not struggle, Evie will relax and it would...sneak past her mental defences."

"Huh."

"So what next?"

"We'll take you home, keep an eye on you."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Evie paced.

She didn't know what to think, she thought she could trust Irene but now she can't she didn't know _what_ to think.

If she can't trust Irene who can she trust?

Well Loki, was the first person she could think of. How will the Avengers act when they find out about her pregnancy? Tony had threated to avenge Steve if she hurt him, but what would they do? Would they actually hurt her?

Not wanting to think about that Evie went straight to Loki's place to wait for him, she just wanted to ask _why_ and what his plan is for Irene. Her best friend.

She made it to his apartment and paced for a while. Made herself a coffee, right now she _really_ wants wine but the baby growing inside her forced her to resist the urge. And she got some ice to put over her pulsing cheek.

Regalis walked in about an hour later, Evie stood immediately on the other side of the door, "Why did you want a picture at a gallery?" she asked abruptly him.

Regalis froze and his eyes went straight to her bruised and bleeding cheek, "Who did that?" he demanded.

Evie's eyes narrowed, "Answer my question first."

"For the reason I told you before. To have something that is mine." Regalis answered stepping further into the room and closed the door behind him, he glanced around the room before slipping back into his Loki accent, "Who did that?" he repeated.

Evie sighed and fell backwards onto the couch; Regalis stood in front of her looking deadly but Evie patted the couch and he sat down beside her, "Irene." Regalis somehow managed to look more murderous than he did 2 seconds ago, he stood up and turned towards the door but Evie grabbed his hand stopping him from moving towards the door. "_Stop_!" Regalis stopped and turned to face Evie, she suddenly felt actually scared of him seeing that look in his eye but she calmed herself with the reminder that he won't hurt her.

Regalis saw the fear in her eyes and he sagged, he hadn't wanted to scare Evie. "Sorry." He apologised, Evie nodded accepting the apology.

"Why did you daemonise _Irene_ of all people? I thought you didn't like each other."

Regalis hesitated not trusting his own voice for a moment, "When she kissed me at her apartment – when we watched Avatar – I saw the opportunity and I took it. I have no use for her and I know she will not help me no matter what, but she's your best friend and I knew you would ask her for advice. I figured that if she was daemonised, some of her sense of good and bad would leave so she would advise you in thing's she wouldn't usually." he shrugged again, "Like I said, no plan for her but she was there ready, just in case. Why would Irene _hit_ you? You two are best friends are you not?"

Evie nodded, "I told her about the baby." Regalis' eyes widened questioningly, "I thought I need advice, I need comfort from my best friend. Cause a baby's a big thing. But she told me to get an abortion. She wasn't being herself."

Loki's eyes narrowed further, "You-"

"I won't get one don't worry. Just, I didn't understand why Irene was doing this, she just slapped me." Evie shrugged again and sat back down pulling Regalis to sit with her, "We argued and I told her to screw it. She guessed that I know about you Regaki, she's smart. She'll think about it and she might work it out. Being daemonised, and the baby and _you_. She'll tell the Avengers or something and-"

Regalis silenced Evie's slight panicked rant with a kiss, "Don't worry. It'll be ok." Evie smiled softly.

"Don't kill her please. I'm pissed at her but she's my friend." Regalis sighed but nodded. "And as I was saying, soon you'll be able to make your own gallery soon, like a shiny new Australia can be a gallery if you want it to be with only your drawings inside."

It took Loki a moment to work out what Evie was talking about but he eventually shrugged, "It may be, but it's nice for somebody to _want_ my pictures in their gallery."

Evie nodded in understanding. "Does it take a lot of energy to stay as Regalis?" she asked curiously.

Regalis frowned, it was easy to see that Evie was a bit nervous her leg was bouncing and Regalis realised Evie hasn't actually asked him so many questions about this situation yet. She was asking quickly almost urgently despite there being no urgency to his knowledge, so he cut her some slack and nodded.

"It's unlikely I will just change back if I fall unconscious without the spell but it'll take me longer to awake." he spoke with Loki's accent. "I've been thinking I should stay as Regalis even here, it's safer against S.H.I.E.L.D."

"I'll never get used to his voice from you." Regalis opened his mouth to argue but Evie shook her head, "I know you're the same person but...it's like a character and an actor. Regalis is the character you play, so it's like when 10 in Doctor Who used David's Scottish accent." Regalis chuckled, Evie had bought a TV a few days ago and forced him to watch various TV shows, Doctor Who included.

"Would you rather I speak like this?" he spoke with Regalis' normal voice but Evie shook her head.

"You're deep, baritone, _English_ accent is sexier."

He chuckled and kissed her temple, "Then I shall keep my uh...English accent." He repositioned himself so that he's straddling her and kissing her deeply.

"C'mon, let's take this to a more comfortable place." Evie murmured leading him to the bedroom taking his shirt and belt off as they stumbled.

Evie pushed him backwards onto the bed and kissed down his neck making him moan and then kissed all down his stomach and back up to his mouth.

Regalis ran his hand through her long, soft hair, it smelt of cherries. As soon as he had some sense he casted a spell immediately removing all her clothes and Evie laughed, "Beautiful."

Evie flushed, "This feels weird," she murmured, his hands ran up her back, thumbs brushing across her breast making her moan. "Like I'm having a threesome but there's only one bloke present." She continued.

"I'm not really sure how to reply to that." Regalis stated breathlessly, Evie ignored him as she pulled him into another kiss.

A while later the bedroom door suddenly crashed open. They pulled apart immediately, Loki rolled off Evie and Evie pulled the covers over herself in a panic. A green eyed Regalis barely managed to stop himself from magically pushing the attacker back into the far wall, only stopping himself when he recognised Irene. Which once he did he laid back and grinned confidently his legs outstretched not caring that's he's naked. Irene glanced down then quickly back at his face looking disgusted.

"Irene!" Evie yelled once she recognised her, "What the _fuck_?!"

"Me what the fuck! _You_! I mean...what about Steve! And you're actually- With _him_!" Irene waved her hands about frantically before finally pausing and just pointing at Regalis who calmly rose an eyebrow.

"What the fuck are you doing here?! I don't want to see you!"

"Well I wasn't here looking for _you_." Irene pointed between them both, "It's actually _you_ I'm looking for, _Regalis_. Or Loki, whatever the hell your name is!"  
Regalis cocked his head to the side in confusion, "Loki?"

"Oh don't play dumb!"

"I'm not; I'd like to know why you think I'm Loki. But can we get dressed first?"

Irene scowled and left the room slamming the door behind her. Evie blinked, "I was not expecting that."

"Me neither." Regalis agreed, he sighed and kissed her, "We'll have to finish this another time."

"Well I'm sure she can wait 10 minutes."

Loki grinned and casted a silencing spell.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

They dropped her off in central park, there were people everywhere having picnics in the park. Lovers on a date, old friends talking quietly, family's with a stroppy teenager texting away and the youngest giggling as they threw bread into the pond for the ducks.

Irene smiled softly, these people had no idea what may come. They were just getting over Loki's first attack and _now_, was he going to attack again or not?  
Irene sighed; she wished she was oblivious, if Evie and Steve hadn't met then she would be.

But then she wouldn't know the Avengers, she sometimes forgot they're famous, they're just _them_. Her _friends_.

_Bruce_.

She's glad Evie met Steve; glad she's now known in the public eye, glad her life has changed. She's just terrified over what was going to come next.

She hated what Evie was doing, how _useless_ she feels, but there was only one thing she had left to do. Confront Regalis.

She's not the only one that suspects him to being Loki.

She knew the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D were doing something but without proof they couldn't do much and they need proof and that'll be hard to get. So she would need to be sneaky, or maybe she could be blunt, that would work too.

Irene sighed again deciding what to do at this very second.

First, Steve needs to know about this. Maybe not exactly the pregnancy but that Evie had gone further with Regalis, that he can't continue being oblivious and pretending this is just two friends giving each other the occasional kiss.

But she had asked Natasha just before she left about Steve and apparently he was busy in some random country so she decided to talk to Mycroft or Sherlock. Since Mycroft was busy with lawyer-y stuff at S.H.I.E.L.D she went to Sherlock. It was still during school hours so she went to the school.

She knew what classroom he worked in and paced outside for about 20 minutes until the door opened and Sherlock stared at her curiously. "Charlotte said there's a woman outside pacing. What's happened Rene?"

"I need to talk. Finish your lesson first."

"Alright, just come inside to sit down, your pacing is making me and some of the kids nervous."

Irene followed him inside, Sherlock introduced her to the class and she sat down at the back, she knew various kids kept looking back at her but she found herself lost in Sherlock's words. She's never actually seen him teaching but he had the perfect mix of serious-ness, humour, charisma and charm to make him the _perfect_ teacher.

No wonder he was the favourite teacher.

Plus he is very good-looking so that adds points for most of the girls and some of the boys. If he had been Irene's teacher she knew she would have flirted with him to the best of her ability. Heck she does as her friend but doesn't mean anything by it.

Eventually the bell went and everyone packed up leaving, most of the children would say goodbye to Sherlock. One boy went to talk to Sherlock, something about guitar practise on Thursday, "Yep, normal time," Sherlock grinned at him, "How's it all going Charlie?" Sherlock asked him.

Charlie grinned, "They don't even _look_ at me anymore!"

"_Great_!" Sherlock laughed and ruffled Charlie's hair as he ran out the classroom.

"What happened?" Irene asked curiously.

Sherlock had the grace to look sheepish, "I uh...He was being bullied and I may have asked Steve to stop the bullying but he knows what it's like to be the little guy so he got Thor and Tony involved as well. They came into the school and walked around with him most of the day, when the bully's tried to grab him Tony pulled his suit out and may have uh...threatened the bullies."

Irene couldn't help it, she started laughing and Sherlock grinned but only for a moment before he looked serious, "So what happened? What's wrong?"

Irene made sure the door was closed, "Don't interrupt okay? Not till I'm done." Sherlock nodded and Irene took a deep breath and begun to explain everything.

When she was done Sherlock sat in shocked silence.

"So...You slapped Evie?"

Irene nodded, "Yeah. I don't _care_! And it's annoying because I know I should but I don't and I know that's cause of the daemon which I want out but something in me doesn't care! And it's so _confusing_! I don't know what I'm supposed to do right now."

"Calm down." Sherlock spoke up sternly, "Breathe, in, out. There we go. Okay first, you need to talk to Steve. She _actually_ is cheating and there's confirmation now and she's admitted to it, so Steve deserves to know. I'll talk to Evie with Croft if he can, because I doubt she'll want to see you right now."

"I know." Irene sighed.

"Irene, don't go to Regalis."

Irene's eyes widened with mild shock, "I wouldn't."

"Yes you would." Sherlock sighed, "If you're right then he's Loki then he's dangerous. But I know you're impatient and want to handle things on your own but this you can't ok?"

"If he's really dangerous S.H.E.I.L.D would be on him right now."

"You know as well as I do that they _are_. They're watching him but there's no way to prove it anything until he changes back to Loki in sight of someone. I think they managed to get camera's in his apartment but so far they show nothing of importance."

"He could have...charmed them or something."

Sherlock laughed, "I guess but Thor had no idea about half the technology when he first turned up so I don't see why Loki would." Irene shrugged, "But on the off chance you're right that means he's _dangerous_."

"Hold on _cameras_! We can catch him and Evie in the act!"

"Irene, I doubt Steve'll _want_ to see that. I don't actually to be completely honest. Plus if S.H.I.E.L.D is doing that they don't care about his personal business, just the Loki part."

Irene scowled, "Ok. I won't go see him."

Sherlock sighed, he didn't believe her but he knew there was no way to stop her if she got an idea in her head so he just hugged her, "Just be careful and don't do anything stupid yeah? I should have been in a meeting..." He glanced at his watch, "20 minutes ago."

"Yeah." Irene kissed his cheek and left the school.

She had lied of course. She couldn't _not_ go see Regalis, demand an answer, to get the bloody daemon out of her and to stop being with Evie.

It wasn't hard to find where he lives. Regalis is not a common name. In fact there was only one known Regalis in New York.


	25. A Visit Overdue

**AN: Warning! Mentions of Self-harm.**

**Also I've updated chapters 22-24, only small things but some bits that I realised needed to be added for future chapters.**

Irene started to knock on the door but changed her mind with her fist an inch from the door and instead she checked her hair and pulled out a bobby pin with a satisfied grin.

It took ten minutes and she got an odd look from an old lady in the hallway but she promised it's Avenger business whilst hoping this lady hadn't been daemonised.

"You work for those poor heroes? I don't understand why everyone seems to hate them so..." she stated and Irene grinned.

"Thank God. Well hopefully I'll be able to stop this. So you're saying you're on their side?"

She nodded, "May I ask what Regalis has to do with them?"

Irene's eyes widened, she hadn't expected him to make nice with the locals, "You know him?"

The lady nodded, "I do, he's a sweet young man. Fixed my wardrobe door for me. The young lady that visits him a lot is sweet as well."

Young lady? Evie. "Does she look like this?" Irene pulled out her phone and showed the lady the picture of herself and Evie. The lady nodded.

"That's her."

Irene nodded with a sigh, "Thought so. Sorry I can't tell you why but I promise it'll be sorted please don't tell anyone about this."

"About what?" the lady grinned and winked before walking away making Irene laugh for the first time in a while.

Finally she got the door open and grinned silently whooping. She looked around the room surprised at how _normal_ it looked.

The room had simple crème coloured walls with a few drawn pictures on the walls, she could almost _see_ Evie adding her own decorations into the room, making the room more feminine.

There's a couch with a table in front with a glass in front of it, a shelf of books, a fireplace with origami on the mantelpiece. There was no T.V but an easel in the corner, sitting on a white dustsheet that was splattered with paint, with blank canvases leaning against the wall.

On the easel was a picture of what reminded Irene of the Great Hall in Harry Potter but with more golden colours and without the four long tables. There was a throne at the far end of the room; it was all empty of all but one person stood in the middle of the room, gold and red capes. Something about the person grabbed her attention so she took a picture on her phone encase someone else does.

When she looked at the other pictures around the room she recognised the style being the same as this one.

Irene stepped away from it and continued to look around the room. The kitchen connected into the living room with black granite sides with all the usual's in the kitchen and two unwashed plates beside the sink. There was a corridor leading down to the left where she assumed was the bathroom and bedroom lay.  
Looking around the room it looked so _normal_, like a regular person has lived here for a few months, accumulated his stuff and will continue to live here.

There was a noise for the hallway and Irene stopped to listen, there was moaning coming from the room down the corridor.

"_Regaki_," a voice moaned and Irene's eyes widened, that was Evie.

Shit. They're having _sex_ in the next room. What was she supposed to do? Just wait? But the moaning quickly made her feel uncomfortable so it would probably be easier to interrupt as awkward as that may be. It would annoy them as well. She knew this is a very bad idea, if she's right he can kill her and probably _will_ especially that she hurt and scared Evie. But right now she just wanted to catch him and didn't care about anything except that.

So of course Irene stormed straight into the bedroom.

Evie pulled backwards, blushing violently but Irene didn't look at her, instead she looked towards the other person.

_Regalis_.

His hand his hands raised in almost a defensive position before he seemed to recognised her and lowered his arms to casually look confident despite being stark naked and face flushed. His blonde hair was ruffled and eyes dark with lust but he grinned at her knowingly.

Evie was glaring darkly the bruise on her cheek had darkened but Irene didn't stare at it, "_Irene_!" Evie yelled, "What the _fuck_?!"

Irene felt a burst of anger, what the hell was Evie doing! "_Me_, what the fuck! _You_! I mean...what about _Steve_! And you're actually- With _him_!" she pointed at Regalis and he calmly rose an eyebrow.

"What the hell are you doing here?! I don't want to see you!"

"Well I wasn't here looking for _you_. It's actually _you_ I'm looking for, _Regalis_. Or Loki, whatever the hell your name is!"

Irene watched as Regalis cocked his head to the side looking quite confused, but she could see in his eyes, they were switching between brown and green. Irene's eye's widened but Regalis ignored that, "Loki?" he asked as if he genuinely didn't understand.

"Oh don't play _dumb_!" Irene yelled.

"I'm not," he smirked, "I'd like to know _why_ you think I'm Loki. But can we get dressed first?"

Irene sighed, she didn't wanna leave them both alone but she couldn't exactly stand there while they get changed. Him being naked lying on a bed in front of her is disturbing enough for one day.

It took them 15 minutes to get dressed. She wasn't stupid, she knew what they were doing but she _really_ didn't want to see that again, her eyes were burning but she tried to push that image back.

As they came out the room Regalis was wearing jeans and a white shirt with a leather jacket that suited him _really_ well. Evie was wearing a pale pink blouse with a dark blue and white poka-dot skirt.

She was definitely _not_ wearing that earlier.

"How did you get in anyway?" Regalis asked Irene as he walked back into the room. Evie was brushing her hair, with _Irene's_ hair brush. When the hell had she taken that?

Regalis just left his hair dishevelled making some small part of Irene's brain wanted to touch it but then the rest of her brain reminded her that she hates his guy.

"Picked the lock. Easy enough." She admitted uncaringly.

Regalis nodded making a mental note that he really should have secured the door with magic, and he went into the small kitchen. "Drink?" he offered her casually, he said it in a similar way to Tony during the first battle but nobody except he and Tony would know that.

"No. Not planning on staying here long."

Regalis shrugged and put the kettle on and then got a can of coke out the fridge handing it to Evie. Evie took it thankfully.

"So," Regalis spoke up turning to face Irene, he lent back against the breakfast bar crossed his arms and had an expression of curiosity on his face, with a mix of anger and mischief. Evie stood right beside him but moved so that his arm was in front of her – almost as if using him as a shield, "You think I'm that Loki fella, correct?"

Irene nodded, "I don't think. I _know_."

"And why is this?"

Irene rose an eyebrow, "He's seen Avatar."

Regalis snorted, "It's a good film. Are gods not allowed to watch it?"

"He said it specifically in front of me."

"Coincidence."

"Never ignore a coincidence."

"Unless you're busy." Evie added with a shrug.

Regalis nodded, "I see where you're coming from I guess. Is that your only reasoning?"

"I'm daemonised and you're the only guy I've kissed since 'Loki' escaped."

"Yeah right." Evie said, "You've been at too many parties to not have at _least_ kissed someone else!"

Irene shook her head, "If you'd been yourself you'd realise I like Bruce, a bloody hell of a lot so I don't want anyone else."

"If I'd been myself?" Evie rose an eyebrow, "I am myself, it's you that's changed. I've got bruise on my cheek to prove it. You've never hurt me before."

Irene shrugged, "As I said, I'm daemonised. I noticed that Regalis didn't ask about what daemonised means."

Regalis rose an eyebrow, "It helps when Evie's warned me about them."

"I'm pretty sure that breaks the contact you signed to S.H.I.E.L.D." Irene stated, "Not just a little accidently break, a proper actually _shitting_ on it."

Evie shrugged, "We did the same with Leo."

"He was thrown into the middle of it."

"So is Regalis, by being friends with me that does throw them into the middle of it. Plus I was worried about him."

"You shouldn't be." Irene sighed. Regalis rose a hand and Irene stared at him, "Yes?"

"If I'm actually this Loki guy, why are you here?"

"Because I don't trust you and I need to tell you that we _will_ defeat you. I don't care what you do; it doesn't matter because you're screwed."

Regalis' eyes narrowed dangerously, "Good thing I'm not Loki then, because if I was then this would be the most _dangerous_ you could do coming here to confront me."

Irene took a subconscious step backwards. Regalis' expression changed, becoming blanker. That only made him more threatening. "You would hurt me in front of Evie?"

"You threatened _Evie_. You threatened our _child's life_. You _hurt_ Evie. Yes. If I am Loki, then I would." And then his face went from being dark, threatening and terrifying to being relaxed and happy, "Good thing I'm not him then." Irene felt like she got whiplash from his mood change but he didn't give her a chance to reply, he patted Evie's shoulder comfortingly and walked around the breakfast bar. Irene tensed as he walked in front of her and went to the door. He opened it up, "Now I have to ask you to leave or I'll call the cops."

"I'll tell Steve."

"You said that earlier." Evie replied, "Now leave."

Irene did as she was told. Once she was outside she ran, she made it to her apartment and let herself inside falling onto the floor head in her hands, she was shaking. Terrified.

He _is_ Loki.

She had no doubt about that but she still has no proof.

She shouldn't have gone; she should have listened to Sherlock. Now Loki knows she knows she might be the first on his list.

What was she supposed to do? She's an idiot.

She felt a hand rubbing her back comfortingly and whispering soothing words into her ear.

"You went to see him didn't you?" Sherlock asked quietly. Irene nodded, "You idiot. What happened?"

"He threatened me. I mean, not outwardly but I could see it. Evie just stood there, staring at me letting him say those _things_. I know she's not happy with me right now but," Irene took a deep shaking breath.

"It'll be fine." Sherlock promised, "No matter what Evie loves you. She won't let him hurt you."

"The terrifying thing is; I think she would."

Sherlock didn't know how to reply to that. Instead he just rubbed Irene's back soothingly, "I'll kill him before I let him even breath the same air as you." he promised, he would. He wasn't a particularly violent person and couldn't imagine killing but he would for his friend. He would die or kill. He'd do _anything_ for them.

Irene smiled weakly at him. "Have you told Natalie about what's going on?"

"The basics yes, just to keep her safe."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Loki knew S.H.I.E.L.D was watching him. He wasn't surprised, that was bound to happen soon enough.

So he had to be careful, he took to sleeping as Regalis just in case. Only being himself when he went to Kalur or to speak to Magneto. It was annoying and tiring but he couldn't risk them seeing him.

He knew there was cameras hidden in his apartment, they had been easy to detect and slightly harder – but doable – to hack so all it shows is Regalis doing normal, human things around the apartment. Evie helped with the hacking after she told him that she had studied Computer Science in university. They allowed it to show him and Evie together but only when they sat and watched a film or talked until early in the morning when Evie suddenly remembered she had to get home.

That was the weirdest thing, yes they made love a lot but sometimes they just _talked_ and Loki was shocked at how _great_ it felt to do that. The last time he had done that was with Thor when they were very young and he had just had a nightmare, he went to his big brother for help and Thor had calmed him down and they just talked until the Allfather told them off for being awake so late.

Shaking those thoughts away he wondered what S.H.I.E.L.D would do next, they were watching him but if that didn't show anything? Would they leave him to it or would they try to beat Loki out of him?

Whatever it was it wouldn't work.

So grinning, he continued to make dinner for himself and Evie who sat on his couch reading a book wearing one of his shirts.

She couldn't usually stay so long but with the Avengers busy so often she had more time to stay with him without them knowing.

She laughed loudly and he glanced over to see her deep into the book, he felt very domestic cooking for his girlfriend as she relaxed on the couch. He could do this forever. Evie is the perfect woman that he would love to spend the rest of his life with. He forgets often that she's a _human_ but she's nothing like other humans. Once he even caught himself thinking of the formula for a spell that would make him mortal. The thought scared him, so he'd stopped thinking about it quickly.

If his plan failed and they had to run, if Evie was with him he wouldn't care.

Evie glanced up to see Loki stirring the pasta sauce smiling softly to himself. Evie had tried to call Steve a few times but he didn't answer, she wasn't sure if that was because Irene had spoken to him or because he's genuinely busy.

She finally managed to get in contact with Natasha she told her that Steve was in England at the moment. She didn't and couldn't say why so Evie decided to stay the night with Regaki.

He had told her his theory on S.H.I.E.L.D is watching them and it was easier to trick the cameras if he stays as Regalis so as tiring as it is, he stayed that way. Evie didn't mind she was happy either way just to be here with him.

"Where did you say Steve is?" Regalis asked as he dished out the food.

"Uh England I think."

"Ah."

"You know why?" Evie frowned at him, he was smirking. "Regaki? What's going on in England?"

"I may have sent smoke Daemons to the Prime Minister and Cambridge University in England."

"_What_?" Evie dropped her book and stared at him, "How? When? But you've been here?"

"I'm not working completely on my own y'know."

"Yeah, I thought maybe...but who?"

Regalis just grinned. "I shall tell you another day."

"Why them?"

"Power and...to help it spread."

Evie frowned in confusion, "Sorry? What?"

"Again, I shall tell you another day."

Evie scowled but she didn't push, she understand that he can't tell her yet but it was annoying knowing that he doesn't trust her completely yet. She wants to help. But until then she just needs to prove her loyalty.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The next morning Evie was woken by her phone ringing. Regalis groaned in annoyance at the Captain America music.

"'Ello?" Evie answered.

"**Evie! It's Steve."**

Evie knew she should have known that from the music but it shocked her slightly and she sat up, did he know? Has Irene spoke to him? "Steve!" she greeted, Regalis perked up slightly turning to face her. "You know it's like almost 6 am right?"

"**Oh sorry."** He sounded genuinely apologetic, **"It's 11 here. I can't talk for very long but I wanted to wish you a happy birthday and I'm so sorry I can't be there. I tried to convince Director Fury but he didn't care."**

Evie blinked and Regalis cocked his head in question, he could just about hear Steve's side of the conversation, "Oh, I'd actually completely forgotten. Thank you Steve."

She could almost _hear_ Steve's slightly embarrassed shrug, **"You're present is hidden in my side of the wardrobe, you know the brown coat you like so much? It's in the right pocket of that."**

Evie was shocked, despite everything and him being busy almost 24/7 these days, he still stopped to buy her a present? Wow. But right now how the hell was she supposed to get out of this. "Oh Steve, that's wonderful." She answered, "But right now I'm so warm and comfy, will you be offended if I get it later? When I'm more awake."

There wasn't an answer for a moment; Steve coughed almost awkwardly, **"You're with him aren't you?"**

Shit. "What? Who?"

"**Regalis."**

Regalis rose his eyebrows, "No. I'm not." Evie lied, "I just hate getting out of bed unless I need to, I won't be able to get back to sleep you know that."

Steve sighed, **"Yeah. Uh I should be home later if this goes well. I've got to go, I love you."**

"Love you to." Steve cut off the phone and Evie sighed falling backwards, well that wasn't expected.

"It's your birthday?" Regalis asked curiously leaning on her elbow to face her, Evie nodded.

"I'd actually forgotten until Irene reminded me yesterday."

"I didn't know I apologise I would have gotten you something."

Evie smiled softly, the Norse God in disguise looked so concerned that he hadn't brought her a birthday present. "It's fine, I didn't expect you to, not if I hadn't mentioned when my birthday is." Regalis nodded still looking apologetic, "Right I'm gonna try and sleep again. G'night." Regalis chuckled but allowed her to snuggle further into his arms and lay down closing her eyes.

They got about 10 minutes before they were both thrown back into full consciousness by loud Sherlock Holmes music.

"Remind me to put my phone on silent before bed." She muttered to Regalis who laughed. "'Ello?" Evie answered with a sigh, seriously?

**"Evie. It's Mycroft; we need to talk to you."  
**

"It's...6am." Regalis begun to trace patterns on her back and Evie smiled softly leaning into the touch.

**"I'm glad you're aware on how to tell the time Evie."** Mycroft didn't sound like he was trying to make a joke, more like he wasn't amused and couldn't be bothered to play games right now.

"Can't this wait until a normal hour?"

**"No. I've just arrived home so we're doing this now."  
**

Evie sighed heavily and sat up. Regalis made a noise of annoyance. "If this is a bloody birthday surprise I'd appreciate it to be later."

There was silence on the other end for a moment; Mycroft wasn't sure how to respond. **"It isn't a birthday surprise."**

"Alright, I'll be there in a bit." she cut of the phone and dropped back down to lie on her back.

"Mycroft wishes to speak to you?" Regalis asked curiously.

"Yep. I'd assume Irene's spoke to him. He sounds...tense."

Regalis smirked, "Want me to come?"

Evie laughed, "I think that'll only make things worse." she kissed him quickly and then climbed out of bed to get dressed. He stayed in bed just watching her lustfully, "You're staring." Evie commented pulling her bra on.

"I'm aware."

Evie laughed and then yawned, "Uh, I'm gonna kill Croft." she paused and glanced at Loki, "_No_. Not a challenge."

Loki scowled but he was still grinning. "Damn. My entire plan is ruined."

Evie rolled her eyes, "You're quite sarcastic y'know?"

"Who said that was sarcasm?"

Evie just grinned, "I'll probably see you later, you gonna come to the library?"

"I shall. I'll take you out for a birthday lunch."

"Regaki, _best_ thing you've said all morning."

With that she went to her old apartment to talk to her two best friends.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tony froze, he fist an inch from the door. "Ok kissing and going out with Regalis is one thing, but _sex_? _This_?! No! That's just a whole different thing!"

That was Mycroft's voice, yelling. Tony lowered his fist trying to listen harder.

_Regalis_, why does he know that name? _Loki_! That's the guy everyone thinks is Loki but can't exactly do anything and S.H.I.E.L.D won't torture him until they're almost certain encase he is just an innocent man.

"We've been trying to get past the cheating because you're our best friend, but this is just too far." Sherlock was there as well.

"But guys-" Evie spoke up.

Evie? Tony barely held back a string of curse words. Evie's cheating on Steve. With this Regalis guy that might be Loki.

It's too early for this.

"No Evie. Don't '_guys_' us." Mycroft yelled, "We've had enough. I hate to make you choose but it's been between Regalis and Steve. If you choose Regalis then you lose us as well."

"Good on you buddy." Tony muttered under his breath.

"What but-?"

"We love Steve. He's a great person and you've been _cheating_ on him! Irene told us, you're-"

"Irene _told_ you?!"

Told them _what_?

"Yes. We know you two have had a falling out and we had to know _why_. Now we understand. And we're with her."

"What happened to us against the world? You're on my side no matter what unless it's inside the group. This is outside the group. You're meant to choose _me_ over Steve or anyone!"

"Not when you're wrong."

"Oh I know what it is! You finally have rich and famous friends-"

"Don't you _dare_ accuse us of that." Sherlock warned.

"If you want Regalis go to him." Mycroft stated. "Don't except us to be here when it all comes crashing down."

"_Fine_. I won't be here when you start cutting again."

Silence.

"_Shit_, Croft! I didn't-"

"Get out of my sight." Sherlock spoke in a low, dangerous voice, "Get the fuck out of here and don't you dare come back."

There was silence and then a few footsteps, Tony realised Evie was coming towards the door and quickly stepped to the left, Evie stormed out the door and walked straight to right without looking to the left.

Tony stood gobsmacked for a few minutes but then eventually he pushed open the door without knocking. Sherlock stood by the kitchen, Mycroft was sat on the couch his head in his hands. They both looked up in shook when the door opened but when they recognised Tony they both relaxed slightly.

"Tony, hey." Mycroft muttered tiredly he started absentmindedly rubbing at his arms and he didn't look Tony in the eye, "You just missed Evie."

"Is it true? She's been cheating on Steve?" Tony demanded immediately closing the door behind himself.

Mycroft and Sherlock exchanged a glance before Sherlock nodded, "How much did you hear?"

"Enough."

Sherlock began opening up two bottles of beer not seeming to care about the extremely early hour, he held one up to Tony who nodded so Sherlock opened it for him and moved to hand it to Tony. "Put it on the side. I don't being handed things."

Sherlock rose an eyebrow but did as he was told. "So? Explain?" Tony ordered, as picked up the beer and sat down opposite Mycroft; Sherlock sat down next to his brother. Mycroft started scratching at his arms.

The two brothers seemed to have a silent conversation before Mycroft eventually answered, "We've been suspecting she's been cheating for a while, but she's admitting to it now."

"Why haven't you told any of us? Told Steve?"

The scratching got heavier.

"He's spoken with Irene about it." Sherlock explained glancing towards Mycroft's arms as he started scratching even harder, Mycroft put his beer down and reached down to scratch at his leg. "But we weren't sure what to do about it. We've tried talking to Evie but she's refusing to talk to us."

Tony sighed heavily, "Does he know they've gone...further?"

Mycroft shrugged, it looked like an awkward motion with the heavy scratching and Sherlock finally put his hand on Mycrofts. Mycroft stopped scratching looking sheepish. He picked up his beer and downed it. "Sorry." Mycroft muttered. Sherlock shook his head telling him not to worry.

Evie's words came back to Tony about _cutting_. People thought he's oblivious but he's a genius, he _has_ to notice things, it's his job. Contrary to popular belief, he wasn't blind to details - for the most part, he just ignored them because he couldn't be bothered with being this genius it wasn't hard to work out what that meant and knowing that of course Mycroft wouldn't want Tony to say anything. For one they're not close enough plus this is an extremely hard topic to talk about. So instead Tony downed the beer and stood up.

"Irene tried to get in contact with him but Nat said he's in England or something." Sherlock added.

Tony nodded, "The British Government has been attacked by those smoke things."

Sherlock cursed and Mycroft groaned, "That wasn't Loki then." Sherlock stated.

"Hmm?"

"I mean, if Regalis is Loki, it wasn't him that did that specifically. Irene saw him yesterday and I think Evie spent most of the day with him I think."

Tony sighed and rubbed his eyes, "I need to go talk to Steve. I mean, we don't always get along but I can't keep this from him. Wish me luck for the chick-flick moment."

The twins nodded, "Uh, why did you actually come here Tony?"

"I needed to speak with Irene but I'll catch her later. Thanks for the drink." Tony nodded at them both and with that he stalked out leaving the two men slightly dumbfounded.

Tony went straight up to S.H.I.E.L.D, he knew if Steve had returned he would be filing out a report before he has a rest and even then he'd probably rest at S.H.I.E.L.D rather than in the tower, purely because Steve wants to be ready at a moment's notice.

When he didn't find Steve in the main room nor his own room given by S.H.I.E.L.D, Tony called Steve's cell phone hoping that for once Steve had taken it. When he got no answer he cursed, he knew Steve was the only Avenger that actually went to England with the S.H.I.E.L.D agents.

Deciding there's nothing he can do until he actually see's Steve next he went to the meeting Fury wanted him for. He walked into the board room 20 minutes late with Starbucks, and sat down. He kept his eye on the window waiting to see Steve walking past.

Fury was talking about finding Loki but Tony stopped paying attention within the first few minutes, most of it was obvious and just routine.

Tony jumped to a standing position when he saw Steve walking past the window, "Stark?" Fury demanded glaring at him, it was a glare that made most agents behave immediately but it did nothing for Tony who was more than used to Fury being angry at him.

"Gotta go." Tony stated leaving the room and a pissed off Fury behind.

"Tony." Steve greeted tiredly when Tony stopped in front of him, he had bags around his eyes and looked as if he hadn't been sleeping in weeks.

"Cap! How'd it go?"

"We were too late. The Prime Minister Cameron refused to speak; Thor got there and said he can sense the daemon."

"He's an idiot anyway." a random British agent added from behind Steve.

"Still was helpful to have him on our side." Steve sighed.

"Loki's targeting powerful people." Tony realised, "Agent whatever your name is," Tony called out to the English agent.

He looked towards Tony and then looked around before pointing at himself, "Finch."

"Right, Finch whatever. I need you to ask someone to get a list of the world's most powerful people. Find out who's been hit and who hasn't." Finch nodded and saluted before jogging off.

Steve rose an eyebrow, "What gives you that idea?"

"The American and the English Government, I think Nat's gone to Russia 'cause their president or something was threatened."

Steve nodded, "Make sense. I gotta go make my report; you should go talk to Fury."

Tony held out an arm stopping Steve quickly, "Hold up. Steve I need to talk to you about something." Tony stated before he could chicken out.

Steve's eyes narrowed immediately in worry, Tony knew that calling him by his first name would get his attention faster that this is a serious matter. Although Steve is usually a serious person, so getting his attention that is serious isn't that much of a difficult task to do.

"What's happened?"

"Let's get down to the tower. It's more private."

Steve's eyes narrowed further, "When do you ever care about privacy?"

Tony shook his head, "C'mon."

"Hold on, we've got stuff to do. I need to write a report."

"If we need to go somewhere they'll call us. For now you need a shower and we need to talk. The report can wait."

Tony said that often but usually to get Steve to have fun but Steve seemed to understand that it's different this time by Tony's urgent tone.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tony sighed as they made it back to the tower, "I hate chick flick moments."

Steve rose an eyebrow, "Tony just tell me what's happened. I've never seen you like this before."

"Strange isn't it? I'm genuinely doing this. Turns out being kidnapped and becoming Iron Man changed me more than I realised."

"_Tony_-"

"JARVIS is anyone else here?" Tony asked ignoring Steve's warning tone.

"Miss Potts, Mr Banner and Miss Romanov."

"Don't let them in here, we shouldn't be interrupted."

"Tony," Steve warned again.

Tony sighed heavily. He didn't want to do this. He hated talking and doing _people_ stuff but this was something he knew he couldn't keep from Steve no matter what he thought about talking. He just didn't know how to say this, should he explain or be blunt? He was better with being blunt so decided on that, "Evie cheating on you."

Steve blinked once, twice, three times, "What?"

Tony was relieved Steve could still speak but he had to explain, "I went to see Irene earlier. Didn't catch her though. Evie and the twins were arguing. I heard the end of it." Tony found explaining with short sentences at a time was easier, "Evie left. Didn't see me. I spoke to the twins. Apparently you had some idea and spoke to Irene about it?" Steve nodded, "Well, I hate to tell you this. And I mean it; I really hate to say it. But they've had sex. Evie and Regalis that is."

Steve didn't react for a moment, Tony stood awkwardly at the side unsure if he should say anything when suddenly Steve growled out in anger and frustration and kicked the table over. Tony stepped back, more in shock than fear as the table flung across the room under Steve's strength and the Steve processed to fall backwards on the couch head in his hands.

Tony really didn't know what to say, usually he'd make a joke but for the first time he knew that this was a bad time.

Suddenly Steve sat up straight and became the solider that they only saw during battle. Steve straightened up, shoulders back, stared straight ahead and stood up again.

"S.H.I.E.L.D thinks he might be Loki." Steve stated, he sounded emotionless. "Director Fury was asking me about him yesterday. I don't know him well enough except that he and Evie are friends. What do you know?"

"Irene's said a few things that Regalis has done or hinted. Plus the way Evie's been acting since she met him is different." Tony shrugged helplessly and Steve turned away. Tony didn't know what to say. "Steve-"

"Just don't Tony." Steve paused and turned slightly towards Tony but didn't look him in the eye, "Thank you. For telling me." with that Steve stalked out of the room.


	26. Plans

**AN: Sorry for people are getting impatient but we're almost there!**

Steve didn't know what he should do. He needed to talk to Evie but he needed to think first so he went for a shower.

He had known about Evie and Regalis for months but he didn't _want_ to know so he pretended he didn't. He was purposely oblivious because knowing means he has to do something about it. After his shower he knew he had to talk to Evie so he called her asking her to come to the tower, it's urgent.

**"What's wrong?"** There was a note in her voice, she knows he knows but doesn't want to say it yet.

He just told her they need to talk and it'll be better to do it at the tower.

Evie had spent most of her day at the library or with Regalis, she was with Regalis when he phone rung and Steve called.

She knew he must know now and it's time to break it off, but if he knows will he break it off with her first?

She didn't know what she should do.

She walked into their floor to find him sat on the couch holding a small rectangle shaped box covered by brightly coloured 'Happy Birthday' wrapping paper on it. He was staring at it looking absolutely devastated by when he heard her come in he hid all of his emotions behind a mask. A mask only worn by soldiers.

"You were with him this morning weren't you?" he asked not looking her in the eye.

Evie didn't answer, instead she moved closer to him before sitting down on the couch beside him, sitting so that she was facing him. Their knees touched and he turned away. "Steve-"

"Just tell me Evie." He interrupted moving to look her in the eye, just for a moment. But long enough to see that he knows everything. Well almost everything, she thought one hand moving closer to her stomach.

"No, I was here." Evie lied, she didn't know why she was lying but she just didn't want to tell the truth just yet. It's her birthday. Can't she just pretend it all ok until tomorrow morning?

"_Don't _**_you _**_lie to me_!" Steve yelled he slammed his hand against the arm of the couch. Evie fell back slightly, Steve has never yelled at her. "The bed was made." Steve continued he stood up and started pacing in front of her, "You never make the bed. The room hasn't been touched." Steve paused and turned to face her, he looked her in the eye locking their eyes refusing to let her look away "Were you with him this morning?" Steve repeated his earlier question and Evie sighed.

"Yes." She answered honestly.

Steve turned away and closed his eyes; he's a soldier he can't let her see him cry. He moved to the kitchen but he didn't look as if he has any purpose or aim to his movements. He just needed to do _something_.

Evie sighed and stood up but then sat back down. "Did you speak to Irene then?" Evie asked quietly, not sure what else to say.

Steve paused; he turned slightly towards her but only enough for her to see the side of his face, "Irene? No. She has left some messages on my phone though; I figured I'd listen to them later."

"Oh. How then?"

"Tony heard the argument earlier."  
Evie froze what? She tried to think about what was said. The twins know about the pregnancy so had Tony heard that part? "What?"

"He spoke to the twins afterwards. Came to tell me."  
Evie opened her mouth to remind Steve how much she does love him, to say that she's sorry even though she's not really but all she managed was: "I lov-"

"How long has this been going on?" Steve demanded interrupting her.

Evie paused, his interruption pushed her off track for a moment and then she shrugged, "Since the kiss."

Steve nodded, he didn't look surprised at that, "So all this time you've been 'just friends', it was a lie?" Evie nodded, she knew she should feel guilty but she didn't. She couldn't bring herself to care. "I've suspected it for months, but I didn't want to believe it. I was purposely oblivious but I can't take it anymore. Why? Why him? Why now? _Why_?"

Evie shrugged, "It was easy."

"What and we're complicated? I know I go off on missions a lot but I-"

"No! Not that, just it was easy to just...do it."

Steve nodded slowly, regretfully, "Do you...regret it? Do you feel guilty?" Evie didn't answer and Steve felt his heart break even further he didn't think that was possible. "This is over Evie. I can't believe I'm saying it but I've had enough of the lies, the cheating. The everything. I know you were planning on doing this soon anyway so I guess it's mutual. You can come pick up your stuff another day but right now, just go."

"Steve-"

Steve shook his head; he threw the present towards her. Evie caught it in both hands staring at it shocked as Steve turned his back on her going into his bedroom closing the door behind and he collapsed on the floor leaning back against the door barely holding back his tears, he wondered if Asgardian beer would let him get drunk.

There was silence on the other end until finally footsteps and then the elevator.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Evie stepped into the elevator and sighed when Pepper was already inside reading something on her phone, she looked up as Evie stepped into the elevator, "Evie, are you ok?"

"Not really. Shitty day." She refused to say any more, ignoring Pepper's worried tone and glances and just left the building without another word.

She couldn't go to her old apartment because all of her room-mates had told her to leave; they had chosen Steve over _her_! She didn't understand! What happened to the undying Hufflepuff loyalty they used to have?

She would choose them no matter what, even if they killed someone, she'd help hide the body. But they wouldn't do that for her. So instead she went to Regalis' apartment. No. _Loki's_ apartment.

What she didn't realise was that she has chosen something over them. Loki.

While she was walking she suddenly remembered the birthday present and pulled it out of her pocket she had placed it in and ripped open the brightly coloured wrapping paper. There was a velvet black rectangle shaped box. She opened that and inside found a gold necklace with a small diamond pendant attached. Evie sighed; she ripped off the necklace she was wearing. She had stolen it from a shop a little while ago quite easily actually. And she put this one on.

She let herself into Regalis' apartment with the spare key under the fire extinguisher; she knew he wouldn't mind her staying with him in fact, he'd love it.

"You don't need him. Soon we will rule Midgard." Regaki told her later.

"I just didn't expect my friends to be like this. I thought they'd be with me."

"It's my fault. I'm sorry." He wasn't really sorry, he despised Irene, Mycroft had gained an ounce of respect from Loki but not much but he felt it was the right thing to say to Evie right now.

"No, it's not." Evie shook her head, "I love you Regaki."

Loki chuckled at the name Evie had started calling him after the accidental time. "I love you too Evie." he did wonder why Irene had disapproved; she had been daemonised for almost as long as Evie but it didn't seem to be taking effect with her. Smaller details maybe, she's become blunter than usual – if that's possible, but otherwise she could tell the difference between good and bad. Maybe she has better mental shields. Or maybe her dislike for him is stronger than the daemon.

"So when's this going down?" Evie asked, Loki looked down and her and suddenly sensed a change. It is distant due to the bracelet stopping Thor from sensing the daemon but it was there. This had broken down the last of her mental shields, the daemon was taking over, he knew if she removed the bracelet all of her veins would be black.

"Soon." he promised.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The day after they broke up Evie went back to get her stuff hoping Steve wasn't there - but of course, he was.

Evie walked into their- _Steve's_ floor and paused. Steve was sat on the couch drawing. He looked up curiously, his eyes narrowed and went straight to the neck he had given her and he sat up straighter.

"Steve," Evie greeted, shocked as she tucked the necklace behind her 'Only Wizards can see this picture' shirt, "I just came to get my stuff. Sorry. I didn't think you'd be here."

Steve shrugged and motioned to the bedroom. "I packed your clothes." he stated simply.

"Uh...thanks?" she didn't know if that was a thank you moment or not and went to collect them. There were a few boxes; some empty and two of them were full of clothes.

Evie stared sadly at them; she hadn't expected it to end like this. As she began packing the rest of her stuff she thought about meeting Steve, her excitement and nerves. Now she loves him but she loves Loki more. Or maybe the same amount? But she's chosen Loki and can't change her mind. Why was this so bad that she's with another guy? They used to do it all the time, in other countries people have like 20 wives or husbands or whatever. She just wants two. Is that really all _that_ bad?

Sighing she shook herself out of it and spent the next few hours running about grabbing her stuff. Steve ignored her but at one point she was walking behind the couch and Steve quickly turned the page but she caught a glimpse of names. President Xander, Prime Minister Cameron, Mark Zuckerburg, David Karp. Random? She made a mental note to ask Loki if it means anything to him.

The page he had turned it onto however was a picture of her and him on the couch cuddled together, she wasn't finished. It felt almost poetic as Evie stared at it, she didn't feel like a whole person right now.

Steve sighed and ripped that page out before closing the pad. He screwed it up and threw it towards the bin. It landed perfectly.

Evie sighed and continued doing what she had been.

It took another few hours to take her stuff back and forth. Her car – given by Tony – had disappeared in the morning so she had to borrow Valerie small two seated car and take the boxes two at a time.

Regalis offered to help but she knew he'd probably be murdered if he went into the tower so instead he took over the driving back and forth as she took the boxes down to the lobby. None of the Avengers offered to help.

It was quite late when she finally flopped onto the couch, boxes around them.

She frowned at one of them that was open and clothes were badly put back in. "Did you open that?" she asked Loki, who sat looking like Regalis beside her.  
Regalis glanced over and nodded, "There was a listening device hidden inside."

"Oh." Evie didn't know what to say to that, "How do you know they're there?"

Regalis shrugged, "I feel like I'm being watched and I can cast a wordless spell to find where it is coming from."

"How do you know much about technology? I mean Thor didn't."

"Don't compare me to Thor then." Regalis snapped angrily.

"Sorry." Evie murmured, she sighed and stood up walking to the nearest box starting to unpack, it was her DVD's.

Regalis sighed and moved to kneel beside her, he took a moment to take note of how he's actually kneeling not exactly bowing to anyone but kneeling to be on the same height as a _human_, it should have been disgusting but all he was worried about was Evie's anger. "No, I apologise. I learnt all I know from Theo."  
"Theo?" Evie frowned turning to face him, "Oh right, the guy you met when you landed?"

Regalis nodded, "They were very kind souls, him and Grace." He hesitated, he could sense the daemon, which meant it is very strong, he didn't think Thor or any other magical begins would be able to sense it unless the bracelet is removed, and even then Loki can only feel it as he was the one to put it into her. But this means it's strong, she's given in.

It's time.

"Evie," Regalis spoke quietly, "I think it's time I explained my plan." Evie's eyes widened and she turned to face him looking hopeful, Regalis looked around where he knew the cameras were hidden, so instead he stood up and helped Evie up leading her to his – their – bedroom to change back to Loki. He did it partly for comfort and partly because it felt better to explain this while he is himself. They stayed in the bedroom because that room wasn't bugged to Loki's knowledge. "Firstly I must explain that I am in alliance with some mutants," Evie's eyes narrowed. "I did not know you were a mutant until that day, which by the way it is my fault you lost control. My magic can cause a loss of control for a split second and you happened to be holding something small enough for it to affect."

"But you've cast spells around me since?"

"You've practised your control have you not?" Evie nodded and Loki shrugged in a 'well there you go' motion. "Do you know of the brotherhood?"

"As in Magneto?" Evie's eyes widened, "Did _you_ order for Steve, Tony and Bruce to be kidnapped?"

Loki shook his head, "No. but I am aware of what happened. I was still in prison at that time so I have a pretty good alibi."

Evie laughed and rolled her eyes, "But you're in alliance with Magneto? He like wants to kill all humans that aren't mutants." Loki rose an eyebrow and Evie laughed, "Right. So do you."

"No, I wish to rule them. But Erik is willing to help in this, in return I help him gain more power and he will have his war. I have also contacted the European Mutants, they call themselves the E.M."

"E.M. So imaginative."

Loki chuckled, "Well yes. And a few others. They have been the ones putting the smoke daemons in people except for the American President."

"Why did you do that one personally?"

Loki shrugged, "Time for the world to know that I have returned."

"Don't knock four times."

"What? Why would I knock four times?"

Evie shook her head, "Don't worry. So what are you doing with the smoke daemons? Or Daemons in general?"

"The smoke daemons are being used to be put into people with power, such as the creator of Facebook, he will begin to put subliminal messages into the site. But also into the public where it will spread via sexual contact." Evie's eyebrows rose at that, "Eventually we'll have enough that the Avengers will have to go into hiding." Loki smirked, "Right now there is a meeting of the United Nations. A woman who can turn herself invisible has a box of smoke daemons and they will go undetected unless Thor is there."

Evie gapped, "Loki, that is genius."

Loki chuckled, "Thank you."

"So what's next?"

Loki continued to explain his plan for what he's going to do next, Evie listened with rapt attention looking almost as if she thinks Loki's telling her a bedtime story.

Halfway into the explanation there was a knock at the door, Evie and Loki glanced towards the door then back at each other frowning. "Expecting company?" Evie asked curiously, Loki shook his head.

"You are the only company I expect."

Evie smiled softly and pushed herself off the bed, "I'll get it. You stay or Regalis up whatever it is you do." she winked at him before wandering to the front door and pulling it open. She was surprised to find Tony on the other side. "Tony," she greeted not sure how to act around him, Steve mentioned Tony had told him so Tony obviously knows what happened. Tony just glowered at her. He was in full Iron Man armour except his helmet which he held under his arm. "You here to avenge Steve or whatever it was you threatened?" Evie asked figuring that it's better to get straight to it rather than beat around the bush.  
Tony's glare deepened but Evie found it almost comical, how had they gone from being really quickly close friends to this? "No. I'm here to warn you not to make this public about your breakup. Don't put it on Tumblr if you attempt it JARVIS'll delete it. Don't announce it anywhere 'kay? Not till this is over at least. You cheated on Steve you owe us that."

Evie blinked, that's simple. "Uh sure I guess then. That's easy." she glanced over as Regalis walked into the living room, he wasn't wearing a shirt and Evie almost giggled at the surprised look on Tony's face she realised he hadn't met Regalis before.

Tony had half expected this really creepy guy but to see such a normal – quite good looking – guy walk into the room was a surprise.

Regalis smiled casual at them and stepped closer holding out a hand to Tony, "Mr Stark. Pleasure to meet you."

Tony scowled down at the hand and to both Evie and Loki's surprise it took it to shake. But wearing his suit gave him more strength and had Regalis been a normal human guy Tony would have probably broken his hand. Loki knew this however and feigned crying out in pain pulling his hand from Tony's, holding it to his chest looking as if he was in a lot of pain and glaring at Tony who just smirked.

"Shit!" Evie yelled fearful for Loki being in pain, not realising he was faking. "What the hell are you ok?"

Tony smirked, "Keep this private." he repeated before turning and leaving. Evie closed the door and Regalis stood back up straight, shook out his hand and the bones clicked.

Evie rose an eyebrow, "He wanted to break my hand. Good thing I'm used to Thor."

Evie chuckled releasing her breath she had been afraid Tony had actually hurt him, "C'mon I wanna hear the rest. And we need to figure out a way to make this public without it being obvious."

Regalis smirked, "I know exactly how to do so."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The next day they went to the nearest cafe and just sat down chatting for a while, not about anything specific.

Irene walked in once, stared at them and walked out again. Evie didn't care. She watched her ex-best friend walk away feeling almost satisfied over it. Irene was the one forced to leave, Evie wasn't gonna move.

She'll make her _kneel_ when this is done.

Regalis then reached across, took her hand and winked before releasing her hand and stood up. He went towards the till purposely bumping into a man much larger than himself.

"Watch where you're going!" Regalis snarled.

The man had an apology ready on his lips but it froze and he laughed harshly. "What you do, huh?"

Regalis' fists curled up. Que Evie stepping in.

"Regalis, what the hell has gotten into you lately?" she yelled. The cafe fell absolutely silent Evie noticed with glee.

"What?" He asked, confused. The other man stayed put, in case something interesting happened.

"You've been starting fights with _everyone_!"

Regalis frowned, "No - no I haven't!"

"Yeah you have! Remember the first fight? The one where you got bruises all down your back? And then the second, where you almost got a black eye?" Evie whispered, they were actual fights but she wasn't as angry at them as she sounded.

"They keep insulting you and the Captain, Evie." Regalis spoke softly, "I don't care about Steve but I can't stand seeing you looking so upset."

"Well were not together anymore so it doesn't matter yeah? You don't have to defend me anyway! I'm a grown woman! And I can't see you hurt, Regalis! You can't carry on!"

The cafe was still silent. She could feel everyone watching, but somehow she wasn't embarrassed.

She stood up, and began to walk out when Regalis grabbed her hand. Sudden rage welled up from nowhere. She slapped him – not hard, but hard enough for it to hurt.

"Evie!" Regalis looked offended, he stared at her, genuine hurt and confusion in his green eyes. Evie tried to express an apology with her eyes; she had hit him harder than she was meant to. But outward she just glared and walked out.

Regalis sighed and followed her out.

Everyone turned to the window watching them walk away and somebody mentioned Evie's name followed by Captain America.

They saw Regalis walk out, then grab Evie's hand again. He had some nerve, after being slapped like that.

But he just said something to her – something that made a tear fall down her face – then they hugged and then she looked up and kissed him.

They stayed that way for a few minutes before the woman pulled away, took his hand and they walked away.

Inside the cafe someone coughed awkwardly, everyone laughed and then conversation continued, mostly over the fact was that Evie Rae? As in Steve Rogers girlfriend, have they broken up?

The next morning in the newspaper one the front page was a picture of Evie and Regalis kissing was on the news with a report on Evie reportedly leaving Steve because she realised that he's not as trustworthy as she previously thought due to everything happening at the moment.

There was a comment on her maybe cheating on him with this guy name unknown but assumed to be the Will mentioned on Evie's Tumblr a few months prior.  
At Regalis' apartment however while the two lovers were quietly eating breakfast talking quietly the door slammed open and Iron Man stormed in. Regalis jumped up moving into a defensive position, Evie gripped the table ready to turn it to water if need-be but it turned out just to be Iron Man. He ignored Regalis and slammed the newspaper on the table in front of Evie. Milk spilled out of her bowl and she stared at that despondently for a moment. Regalis sat back down calmly pulling Evie away from the spilled milk and up towards Iron Man.

His face plate slid up revealing a pissed off looking Tony Stark.

"What the hell is this?" he demanded pointing at the newspaper on the table ignoring Regalis' glare and Evie's annoyed and surprised look.

"A newspaper Tony." Evie answered patronisingly, "What does it look like to you?"

Tony rolled his eyes, "I told you not to make this public."

"You of all people should know we can't always help what the news sees. Now me and Steve aren't together I don't see why I can't kiss Regalis publicly."

"If you truly felt _anything_ for Steve you'd know why, even _I_ know that." with that Tony left the apartment leaving a bemused Regalis and a shocked Evie.

"Can't say I expected that reaction." Evie muttered standing up to get a tissue to clean to milk.

Regalis chuckled, "I was just about to get changed and go to Magneto. Good thing I did not."

Evie perked up slightly, "Oh? What's going on?"

"To find out if infecting the UN was successful."

"Oh. Cool. Go on then, I'll keep watch I guess."

Regalis chuckled and wandered into the bedroom, Evie decided she might as well continue unpacking her belongings.

A while later they found out that yes, it was successful; the smoke went un-noticed as a mutant ensured it was thinner than at the school in Washington.

For the next few days Evie was once again constantly bombarded with reporters but refused to comment on anything she was asked as did Loki. She didn't know what the Avengers were staying but nothing got on the news.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

For the first time in a while all the Avengers were summoned to S.H.I.E.L.D base at the same time, it was early in the morning when they were summoned but none of them were sleeping.

They were sat around the eagle shaped table, Steve looked absolutely miserable but he was pretending it's all ok and he's fine, he did as he was told obedient as ever. He had only told Bruce exactly what happened and Tony knew. But all that the others knew was that Evie and Steve had broken up, they read the news and gathered some of what they could but knew not to always believe the news. Steve refused to answer when asked so they decided to give him time.  
Fury stood at the front glaring down at them. "We're being shut down." he stated immediately.

Nobody reacted for a moment just stared at Fury in absolute shock and disbelief until Tony finally spoke up, "What the fuck! How? When? What?"

"The Board of Governors have been ordered by the entire United Nations. They see us as dangerous. All we can assume right now is that they were attacked by the Smoke daemons."

"Us as in the Avengers or-"

"S.H.I.E.L.D. We're being told to land and evacuate by tomorrow evening or we're being shot down. You six have to keep low for a while, they want to split you up but that can't be done legally but they'd feel safer if you split and less threatened."

"Less threatened is always safer." Someone murmured but Tony spoke above them.

"Not a chance." Tony spoke for all of them, all of the Avengers nodded in agreement. Although they didn't all always get along, they were friends nonetheless and a _team_.

"Isn't there some way to stop this?" Thor demanded, "I can speak to my father. Get some defence they cannot shoot you down with Asgardian defence."

Fury shook his head, "No. It will be better and safer for us to do as they say. You say the smoke daemons will disappear after a while correct?" Thor nodded. "What will happen?"

"I have never met anyone that's been smoke daemonised but to my knowledge they'll slowly begin to calm in their distrust and eventually wonder what in Odin's name they did. Then you should contact them again. See if you can continue S.H.I.E.L.D."

Fury nodded, "We need to go underground until then. Keep this quiet. You six stay in the tower but keep wary. Be ready. We'll keep in contact but you have to work separately to S.H.I.E.L.D. Now get out of here." everyone stood to do as they said but paused when Fury looked as if he was about to speak again, "Banner, be careful. With S.H.I.E.L.D out of business we can't keep other interested parties off your back this way."

Tony cursed looking more worried than Bruce did, Bruce just nodded, "Understandable. Thanks for the warning sir."

They all had to go back to the tower and sat down in the common room nobody sure what to do.


	27. HQ And Confirmations

"What the fuck?!" Tony again was the first to speak. "They can't do this."

"Unfortunately Stark, they can." Natasha started.

"We get our money and resources from the UN. Although yes we are more powerful than _anything_ they have, it's better for everyone to do as they say for the moment." Clint continued. "And you've seen how the public are reacting to us at the moment."

"It's frustrating yes but we have to so what we can. S.H.I.E.L.D is being shut down yes, but that doesn't mean they'll stop."

"Where will they go?" Steve spoke up for the first time in a while, his voice was rough from disuse and everyone was surprised for a moment that he had spoken that nobody answered.

Eventually Natasha shook her head. "Can't say. Fury will contact us when he needs us."

"What happens next then?" Bruce asked.

"Well we should get some sleep." Pepper spoke up, "All of you. You've been exhausted for weeks now."

Clint nodded in agreement, "Pep's right. But later you continue doing what you have been, tracking Loki doing what you can." Clint decided. "I'm not sure if the X-men know what's happened and they might be next so they need to know."

"I'll go speak to them," Tony offered, "I'll be the quickest."

"Good idea, go now It's late but this needs to be sorted as soon as possible." Tony nodded before walking onto the balcony as the suit was put on him and then he flew up into the air.

"I need to speak with my father." Thor stated and stood up, Clint copied his movements.

"I need to speak to you." Clint explained when Thor sent him a curious look.

"Ah." Thor nodded and led the way into the elevator, everyone watched them go with a slightly confused look except Natasha who knew exactly the trail of Clint's thoughts. As soon as the doors closed Clint turned to face Thor.

"I know you've been spoken to about Regalis but I need you to go visit him again. Use Evie and Steve's break up as your excuse or something, you just need to go see him, in his own apartment."

Thor nodded, "I can do that."

"Also what did you think 'bout that photo Irene sent 'round the other day?" Thor rose an eyebrow curiously, "Didn't you get the text?"

Thor shook his head, "My phone has exploded again."

Clint sighed, "_Again_? Seriously man, you need to remember to take it out your pocket before you go to Asgard." Thor shrugged and Clint rolled his eyes more than used to Thor's antics. "You haven't asked Stark for a new one?"

Thor shrugged again, "Slipped my mind."

"Right," Clint nodded in understanding, a lot had been going on. He pulled out his own phone and showed Thor the picture of Regalis' painting that she had taken. Thor gapped.

"It's Loki." Thor nodded, "That man in the middle, I can only assume it's me or my father, that hall is the main hall in Asgard, that's my father's throne."

"Shit." Clint closed his eyes thinking for a moment, "Right, go speak to your dad. I'll let the others know and Fury, we'll go confront him soon as. Together."

Thor nodded, they reached the top floor and Thor stepped out, "Be careful eye of hawk."

"You too big guy." Clint grinned as the doors closed and he pressed the button for the common room floor, when he reached it he told everyone what he had learnt. He sent an apologetic look towards Steve, "It's him. Regalis is Loki. I have no idea how he's hiding it but this means Evie is Daemonised Steve."

"Or she knows everything and doing this by her own free will." Steve shrugged, "Thor can't sense the daemon and doesn't think there's a way to hide it."

"There _must_ be." Pepper stated with no doubt in her voice, "Evie wouldn't do this otherwise."

"How?" Steve shook his head, "But it doesn't matter if she's daemonised or not. What happens about _Regalis_?" Steve spat the name like it was the most disgusting thing he's ever had to say.

"We need to go get him in custody."

"How? If we all go he'll just teleport away like before."

"Maybe not," Bruce was frowning obviously in deep thought, everyone turned to him curiously, "He went to Irene's apartment right? Evie was there. So maybe he's connected himself to Evie somehow, Thor was shocked over his teleporting so he probably can't actually teleport without...a connection. If Evie's with him then he can't teleport towards her."

"Unless it's something in the apartment." Clint suggested.

"Split up. Some of us stay at the apartment while the rest go to confront him." Natasha decided. "Tony, Thor and I will go confront him."

"And me." Steve spoke up. "I can't just sit at the apartment. If I get the chance to break his neck I'll take it."

The other four shared a look of shock never before having heard Steve so violent but chose not to comment understanding why he is.

"You can't kill him straight away," Clint stated with a hint of amusement, "As much as I would love to put an arrow through his eye socket we need him alive." Steve scowled but nodded in understanding. Bruce felt the Hulk growling at the thought that he can't rip the 'puny God' in half and that made Bruce laugh softly.

"Sorry," He apologised when they all looked at him, "Uh, the other guy doesn't like not being allowed to kill him." Clint snorted and Natasha rolled her eyes, Steve smiled for the first time in a few days.

"So we know who he is. Let's go." Steve decided standing up and reaching for his shield placed beside the chair.

Natasha stopped him, "Wait for Tony and Thor to get back."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It didn't take long for Tony to return. As Tony walked down the balcony to get the suit off, "When's this going on?" he asked to the group sat around the common room polishing their weapons looking as if they were getting ready for a large battle.

"Soon as Thor gets back." Clint answered with a nod.

"So who is it?" Tony asked curiously sitting down beside Pepper.

"Regalis." Steve answered darkly, his hand was twitching, he didn't want to wait for Thor he wants to go now and beat the shit out of him that much was obvious.

Tony nodded not surprised at that, he was pretty sure S.H.I.E.L.D was ready to go after him without proof. He's the only lead they have despite the camera's showing nothing out of ordinary. "We're certain now?"

"That picture Irene sent us, Thor finally looked at it and it's some hall in Asgard or somethin'."

"Have you told S.H.I.E.L.D?"

"Yeah. Fury said go for it. We can't wait anymore."

"We've waited long enough." Steve agreed.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The moment they felt the familiar shudder of Thor landing on the building everyone stood up, Tony had JARVIS put his suit on keeping his helmet under his arm. Steve held his shield, gripping it so tightly his fist hurt but he didn't care. Clint retracted his bow to make it easier to hold and put his quiver on his back while Natasha put the spear Tony had given her for Christmas in a pocket – how she fit it into her skin tight suit Tony couldn't figure out. Lastly Bruce just stood up and put his glasses to the side not wanting to break them.

And waited for Thor to join them.

When he did he nodded at them all, "Heimdall is keeping his eye on us and will send more troops down if necessary." He felt necessary to tell them.

Clint nodded. "Good. You, Tasha, Steve and Tony will go confront Loki and Evie. The rest of us are going to Irene's apartment, encase there's something there that he teleports to. If he doesn't leave immediately contact us and we'll come to you." Clint thought to tell Thor who nodded glad to be aware of the plan.

"What about me?" Pepper asked.

Clint rose his eyebrow, he had assumed Pepper would stay in the tower, she usually did even though she hated doing so. So Clint shrugged.

"I'll go with you." Pepper directed that toward Clint, "I'm not staying out of this one. I _need_ to help."

"In that case I'll do with you to confront Evie." Natasha stated.

They all stood in the large elevator together. There was just enough for all of them with their equipment and leaving some breathing room. Bruce however wasn't particularly comfortable in the space.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Clint, Bruce and Pepper made it to the apartment and knocked on the door, it was opened eventually by Mycroft wearing a bright red robe, he blinked blearily at them. "Morning." He greeted not bothering asking why they were there. He stepped back opening the door wider allowing them inside. Irene and Sherlock stood not far from him and both rose their eyebrows in question.

"Not that it's not great to see you lot at..." she glanced at the clock on the wall, "5 A.M but why are you here in costume?"

"You make it sound like we dress up like this for fun." Clint muttered but grinned.

Irene rose an eyebrow, "You don't? Cause if I looked as sexy as you do in that I'd wear it 24/7."

Clint laughed and winked at her. "Darn. Ruin my secret why don't you?"

Irene smirked and grinned, "But seriously...why are you here?"

"You were right, Regalis is Loki, we came here encase he teleports here."

"Shit. So Evie's daemonised?"

"We'd assume so."

Irene sighed and glanced back at the twins who both nodded, "I guess I have to tell you then," they all stared at her worriedly, "Evie's a mutant."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Evie jumped as the door slammed open and four men stormed into the room. Thor stood at the front. Natasha, Tony and Steve stood slightly behind them.  
Evie felt her heart speed up upon seeing Steve but forced it to slow down.

"Hello." Evie spoke not sure how to react at this. She mentally cursed, Loki's in the bedroom well his body's there but his mind is off to where ever Magneto's hidden. That was the only reason she was up so early. It was too creepy watching him sit silently occasionally making a mouth movement or a head movement. Plus her morning sickness decided to wake her up early.

So she sat in the living room nursing a cup of Decaf coffee and reading through the hate anon's and questions on Tumblr about her and Steve's break-up.

Good thing she was there, "Where is he?" Tony demanded simply.

"Who? Regalis?" Tony nodded and Evie's eyes widened not sure what to do, _Loki_ is in the next room unaware of his surroundings. So, stall. "_Why_?" Evie glancing between them all, "Are you gonna beat him up?"

"As much as we want to, no." Tony answered. "Well, at least not because of this." Tony gestured between Evie and Steve.

Evie frowned in question, "Then why do you wanna know where he is? I'm sorry but we've broken up now Steve. So none of you have a say in what we do."

"He is Loki." Thor decided to tell her simply. He couldn't sense a daemon, so maybe she truly doesn't know? But he's not an idiot, he wasn't going to tell her everything but telling her that might be useful in some way.

Evie sighed, "You've been talking to Irene then? He's not Loki. I'm pretty sure I'd know by now, we've been together long enough." she ignored Steve's visible wince.

"Then you won't mind us having a look around here will you?" Natasha asked but stepped past her before she could reply. Thor went to look at the paintings on the easel. Natasha went towards the kitchen while Tony and Steve went towards the bedroom.

Evie cursed and told herself to stall more; she can't let them in there. How the hell was she supposed to keep them out of there and wake Loki up? "You might not wanna go in there!" she called over to them trying to sound casual.

"Why?" Tony asked his hand on the handle.

"Well first it's our _bedroom_, our private space. Secondly, sorry Steve but no other way to say this – we still haven't cleaned up from last night." Well at least the last part was true.

Steve visibly flinched and walked away from the bedroom Tony however wasn't perturbed and reached forward to open the door. The door however had other ideas and opened just as Tony was about the turn the handle. It pulled away from him, and Tony scowled.

Regalis stood on the other side and he rose an eyebrow. "Well hello there." he greeted calmly. He glanced about the apartment seeing the various men, he caught eye with Evie and rose an eyebrow. She just shrugged at him. "I thought I heard voices. May I ask what you're all doing here?"

"Looking for you."

"Oh. Well you've found me now. Hello." he waved and smiled sweetly and moved to stand beside Evie.

"Brother, we know it's you." Thor spoke up. Regalis' eyebrow rose higher and he moved him and Evie so that they both sat on the couch, he was obviously thinking about how to reply when suddenly his eyes turned green and he looked straight at Thor.

"Took you long enough _brother_."

A man appeared beside Regalis and grinned taking hold of his arm.

Everyone jumped towards the spot trying to stop them but only Steve managed to wrap his hand around Evie's arm before the world disappeared around him.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

He felt like he was being stuffed through a tube, he wanted to release Evie in hopes he'd be shoved back to the Avengers but he had to hold on to stay with them. Even on his own he might be able to do something.

However his hand felt glued to Evie's wrist and he couldn't release her even if he wanted to. When they finally stopped both Evie and Steve stepped back holding a hand to their head and stomach trying to hold back the throbbing headache and nausea threatening to overtake them.

Steve pushed through the pain when he heard retching. He looked up to see Evie had lost her battle with the nausea and had moved to the closest wall and was being sick. His first instinct was to go check on her but he forced himself not to and watched as Regalis did so himself.

Instead Steve occupied himself with looking around where they had landed. They were in a large oval shaped room seemingly empty, the walls looked to be metal and silver. There was an outline of a door in front of him but when Steve stepped towards it he was stopped by the guy who had appeared by Regalis and probably the one to teleport them away.

"Oi. Blue! This guy meant to join us?" he asked staring at Steve but the question was directed away from him.

Regalis stood away from Evie as she nodded and he made a slight growling noise at the nickname. "I told you not to call me that."

The guy shrugged, "Whatever." with that he disappeared.

Steve rose an eyebrow. Mutants then. "Blue?" Steve asked with a forced grin. "Good one."

Regalis growled again and stepped closer to Steve, being Regalis he didn't tower over the Captain but he still met him eye to eye and glared his most menacing but still calm glare at him, "Captain. If Evie hadn't previously asked me _not_ kill you unless necessary you would be dead right now." he spoke in his Loki accent each _syllable_ threatening Steve with pain. Steve's hand twitched wanting to grab the shield on his back but he forced himself to stay calm, stand his ground and stare Regalis/Loki down. "There is nothing you can do to stop me, you are outnumbered and defenceless right now. It was foolish of you to join us but now you have you cannot leave."

Steve knew he was right. He's defenceless and stranded. All he could hope for right now was for Evie to continue to disallow Loki from murdering him because Steve knew he would be dead if Loki wished it so. He would fight to his last breath but he's out numbered and alone.

With that Regalis spun around, glanced at Evie who was now standing up straight and wiping at her mouth, one handing holding her stomach and she glanced between the two men.

"That was of travel was worse than travel via Iron Man." she commented finally, ignoring Steve.

"Are you feeling alright?" Regalis asked her, Steve's eyebrows shot into the air, he sounded..._caring_, worried even.

"Yeah. I'll be fine." she grinned, "I could do with some water though. And an explanation of what just happened?"

Loki waved his hand and a glass of water appeared floating in front of Evie, she smiled and took it drinking it down greedily knowing it won't stay in her stomach but it quenched her thirst for now. One the water was finished and the glass disappeared Regalis explained.

"I had an alert set up outside our bedroom door. Stupid of me not to have thought of it before, but I knew there was someone outside that shouldn't be. Wasn't particularly hard to guess who, so I quickly asked Erik to send a mutant to teleport us out. He did so."

"And we're...where?"

"Magnetos base."

Steve's eyes widened further. _Magneto_. A mutant, one of the worst. The Brotherhood.

He shuddered thinking of his last encounter with the brotherhood. But that shudder brought Evie's attention on him, "Should we be discussing this in front of him?"

Regalis shrugged. "He's trapped. There's no way for him to leave or contact the others."

Evie rolled her eyes and stepped closer towards Steve; he tensed and watched her cautiously. She ignored his gaze and stepped into his personal space. He resisted the urge to step away.

Evie just smirked and reached slowly into his back pocket in his trousers, he rose an eyebrow trying to hold back the shudder he felt run through him at her touch. She smirked feeling it run through his back, Regalis growled and Evie rolled her eyes finally pulling her hand away from Steve and stepping back towards Regalis holding up Steve's phone.

"Way to contact the others." she muttered. Regalis nodded, he wasn't used to technology, and honestly Steve had forgotten about his phone as well.  
And all thoughts of his only contact gone left his head when he saw what happened next.

The phone in Evie's hand just changed, into water. It stayed the same shape for a moment before shaping into a ball and Evie flicked it causing it to fly around the room depending on how Evie flicked her wrist.

She saw Steve's gobsmacked look and grinned, "Oh, did I forget to mention? I'm a mutant."

"Close your mouth Cap." Regalis spoke up, "You don't want to eat flies do you?" Steve snapped his mouth closed and turned his glare on Regalis. "Haven't you anything to say?"

Steve shook his head, "Not to you."

Regalis nodded and put his hand on Evie shoulder. "Let's go then."

He led her towards the door outline which slid open as he approached; he glanced back at Steve who hadn't moved. "You coming Cap?"

"Don't really feel like it." Steve stepped backwards to lean against the wall, "I'll stay here if that's alright with you?"

Regalis shrugged, "Makes no difference to me." he made to continue forward but Evie didn't move so Regalis sighed and turned back to Steve. "Come now or I'll slit your throat."

Steve was tempted to stay there and see if he'd go through with his threat but when Evie turned to face him, he face absolutely serious Steve knew he would. So he stood up straight and moved to follow them out of the oval room.

They entered into a long corridor, the walls were metal and the ceiling was high.

There were at least 20 other people in this corridor, most looked human, one man looked like a camel.

Right at the end of the corridor a door slid open, some people walked out, some people walked in. An elevator then.

There were doors on either side of them; Steve counted 5 on the left 7 on the right.

As Regalis stalked through the corridor people jumped to get out of his way.

Steve could feel the stares. Everyone watching him.

They went to the elevator and waited as it travelled back towards them.

Evie sighed softly and lent against Regalis' side, he put his arm around her shoulders and Steve took a deep breath struggling not to punch him right here and now.

Neither of them seemed to notice his discomfort. The elevator slide open, a couple of people walked out but when they recognised Regalis they nodded almost respectfully. Regalis smirked and stepped into the elevator. Steve considered just standing and waiting for the doors to close hoping they wouldn't notice but Evie glanced back and gestured for him to come in.

For the first time in a while Steve found a disadvantage with his height. He couldn't get lost in the crowd.

Plus the elevator felt a bit crowded.

Regalis reached past and pressed a button, there were 26 buttons but instead of numbers they had letters on them. Regalis pressed on A.

The elevator started up again and travelled upwards until it stopped and suddenly lurched to the side. Evie would have lost her balance if it wasn't for Regalis holding onto her. Steve however wasn't ready and stumbled making Regalis chuckle. He quickly caught his balance again and thought about the elevator going different direction.

He was reminded of that book by Roald Dahl, about the glass elevator that went any and _all_ directions.

Finally it started travelling upwards for another few seconds before stopping.

Regalis and Evie stepped past him. Steve followed them out wondering how large this building is. Or maybe they're underground. Or _were_ underground.  
Outside of the elevator was another corridor similar to the last except, shorter and there were no doors except large double doors at the end of corridor and no other people.

Regalis stalked towards the doors pushing them both open in an almost dramatic motion. Steve could almost see his cape swirling at his feet.

They all walked into that room and Steve looked around.

It was huge, the floor was marble and the walls were metal. There were a few people milling around doing various things but Steve didn't look at them. Instead he looked straight at the man at the end in what looked like a throne.

Magneto. Beside him stood Bale who was smirking at Steve, tensing and un-tensing his hand in a threatening manner. Steve forced himself to look away from him and focus on Magneto. He's more dangerous.

He was grinning at Regalis.

"What are you still doing in that mortal form?" he demanded immediately.

Regalis rose an eyebrow, "Haven't had a chance to change."

Magneto waved his hand and a small metal plate floated towards them with a piece of chalk on it. Steve frowned but didn't comment.

Regalis nodded took the chalk and walked a few metres away from them.

"Everyone out." Magneto suddenly ordered. Everyone that was in the room immediately dropped what they were doing except Bale who stayed at Magneto's side.

Once everyone left Steve watched what Regalis was doing, he drew a perfect circle on the ground and put what looked like runes around it and stepped inside of the circle.

"Go get someone. A pawn." Magneto spoke up pulling Steve's eyes from Regalis. Bale nodded and left the room stepping right past Steve his hand brushing back Steve's arm. Steve was glad he was wearing long sleeves but that didn't stop his shudder.

He glanced at Evie. She was just watching Magneto with a curious expression. Steve wanted to move closer to her, wrap his arms around her an pull her from this place. But he couldn't.

"So it was you that tried to drown me?" Magneto asked, it was obvious he knew the answer.

Evie nodded, "I did. Sorry 'bout that."

Seeing that this conversation probably wasn't going to be important, Steve looked back at Regalis, he was murmuring something that Steve couldn't hear and then the impossible happened. In front of his eyed Regalis began to change. His hair started growing at impossible speeds and darkened until it was pure black.

He seemed to grow taller, his grew thinner but still strong. His shoulders became less broad until everyone about him changed.

And then his clothes shifted into a green and gold leather suit and his large helmet seemed to appear on his head. He shifted his shoulders, moved his neck around and Steve heard the click and then he spun around; his eyes immediately caught Steve's and grinned. Steve forced himself to look away and look natural instead of show the shock he felt.

Magneto and Evie were discussing something about Evie's power as Loki joined them, standing between Evie and Steve.

Ignoring Magneto, Loki bent down to kiss Evie. She grinned and kissed him back.

Steve swallowed the bile that rose in his throat and turned away from them to watch Magneto's amused look.

Until Magneto coughed and Loki pulled back, "Apologies. I could not help myself."

Magneto chuckled. "Young love. I will never understand."

Loki rose an eyebrow, "I am much, _much_ older than you." He cocked his head to the side with a grin, "And much more powerful."

Magneto's smirk fell from his face and Steve realised that although to outsiders it would look as if Magneto was in charge but really, Loki is doing all of this. Working from behind the scenes.

"Haven't you anything to say Captain?" Magneto asked suddenly. Steve rose an eyebrow and shook his head. He didn't.  
The doors suddenly re-opened with a large bang. Steve, Evie and Loki turned to see who came in.

Bale re-entered along with a young girl, she looked no more than 16, with black hair that was obviously dyed, her nails were black and she looked tired. She had bitten of more than she could chew.

When she caught Steve's eye he tried to send her a comforting smile but she just scowled at him.

Bale moved to stand beside Magneto again and the girl stood beside Evie bowing her head at Magneto.

Magneto ignored her and instead looked at Evie. "Change her." he stated.

The girl tensed but didn't move out of her bowed position.

Evie cocked her head in question, "What, into water?"

Steve gasped. Evie wouldn't do that.

Would she?

"Why?" she asked. The girl started shaking but otherwise didn't move. Steve remembered what Magneto had said to Bale, 'Bring me a pawn'. Like in chess. Magneto found this girl unnecessary. Easy to get rid of and it wouldn't change his plan.

Magneto shrugged, "To see how powerful you really are."

Evie nodded in a fair enough motion but looked at Loki first who nodded so she stepped closer to the girl.

Steve reached out past Loki and grabbed her arm. Evie looked down at it and rose an eyebrow. "_Don't_." Steve whispered. "You don't have to do this."

Evie pulled her arm from him, "No I don't." he felt a moment of hope until he looked into her eyes and all he could see was darkness. "But I _want_ to."

Steve felt all hope leave him at that moment. Evie stepped to the girl who was shaking softly.

Evie reached out slowly and took her wrist. The girl gasped softly and looked up at Evie staring into her eyes.

Evie felt the skin go soft beneath her fingers but force the water to stay in the position as the entire body changed, the water seeming to grow from the arm.

The girls eyes were wide and she looked like she was in pain but she didn't move, she didn't struggle or moan. She just stared back into Evies eyes.

Evie watched as the life left her, watched her eyes go dull. And it felt _incredible_.

When it was over they water stayed in that position, the shock and pain still on the water girl's face.

Evie looked up to Magneto who was grinning.


	28. Rabbit Hole

**AN: Sorry this is a bit late. Forgot it was Friday. Chapter 29 might not be here until a fortnight, depends on how much I can get done but I've had exams so I'm no longer very far ahead. Just to warn you now, sorry.**

**Enjoy:**

"Evie's a _what_?!" Clint yelled.

"A mutant." Mycroft repeated in a much calmer voice stepping towards them.

"Since when?"

"She was about 16. We had a sleep over I thought she wet herself." Irene answered simply.

"Hold on," Bruce spoke up obviously confused, "What's her power?"

"She can control and create water from objects. I found out when she was 16, these two found out a while later."

"Why didn't she tell us?"

"At first scared of your reactions and then felt that it was too late." Irene shrugged.

"Begged us not to tell you." Sherlock added, "We wouldn't without her permission anyway but she was just scared. Some people...haven't reacted very well to it."

"Like how? _Who_?"

"Ever notice a scar across the palm of her right hand? It's faint but there."

All three of them nodded, "She said it was a knife accident."

Mycroft nodded, "Knife yes. Accident no. Her mother was a bitch." Pepper gasped, "Aunt Maggie was murderous after that. We all were. But it's fine she's not worried about that any more. But I just thought I should explain why she was wary of telling people."

They all nodded, "We understand. Thank you for telling us now."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As they left the large hall Loki turned a considering eye on Steve.

"What do we do with you then?" he asked curiously. Steve shrugged right now all he could do was try and think about how to escape and pay attention to the people, see what kind of powers they're up against.

He could easily see that they're hilariously outnumbered. But then again, they were last time. Usually are.

"I could set up a cage in our room." Loki suggested smirking, "Let you watch us."

Steve swallowed back the bile. "I'd rather die."

"That can be arranged."

"Be nice." Evie spoke up and Loki rolled his eyes. "What if he joined us? That'd be _fun_!"

Steve had a harder time swallowing back the bile that time, Loki seemed to be having the same problem. "How about no." Loki answered no argument in his voice and Evie shrugged.

"Y'know. Your choice. Isn't there a prison around here somewhere?"

Loki shrugged as they re-entered the elevator. He pressed for L and Steve readied himself for the inevitable rollercoaster.

Loki turned on his heel and glared down at the man behind him. They guy was average height with dirty blonde hair and dark eyes. Steve tried to figure out his power but there were no physical signs.

"What's your name?" Loki demanded.

"Pyro." the guy answered.

"Take this man to a cell." Loki ordered motioning to Steve. Pyro's eyes widened when he glanced up at Steve's large form but nodded confidently.

"Sure."

Loki nodded and when the elevator stopped he stepped out with Evie, Steve knew he wasn't to come and stayed in the elevator watching at Loki kissed Evie and walked down the corridor. Evie looked back one last time before the doors closed.

Everyone else in the elevator reached forward and pressed a button until 10 out of the 26 buttons were lit up.

Steve got the feeling everyone let Loki get to his destination without any stops along the way.

Once they were moving again Pyro looked up at him. "You're Captain America, aren't you?" Steve ignored him. Best to stay silent than say something that'll get

him killed. At least he thought so before a fireball suddenly appeared in Pyro's hand.

The name made a bit more sense now. "Don't ignore me." Pyro bit out.

"Not in the elevator _doofus_!" a voice yelled from behind Pyro. A tall skinny man stood there shaking his head in disbelief.

"It's all metal, not gonna catch on fire." Pyro argued back.

"Maybe not but you know what fire uses up? _Oxygen. _Know what it gives off? _Carbon dioxide_. Now stop it before you choke us."

Pyro rolled his eyes and the fire dispersed. "Whatever."

The elevator stopped and Pyro grabbed Steve's arm leading him out.

Steve considered fighting back but then he remembered the other 10 mutants behind him that could kill him...or worse. So taking note of the floor letter – Z, he followed Pyro down the corridor that was no different to the other corridors he'd been down except it was darker and a bit colder.

Pyro led him to the end and typed a code into the pad at the side of the door and it slid open revealing a small room with a tiny bed, half of Steve's size and a toilet with a sink beside it.

Pyro shoved him inside and the door slid closed trapping Steve in the darkness.

After a few moments a small light came on above him and Steve waited for his eyes to adjust before sitting down heavily on the bed trying to think of what he could do.

He was trapped. Stupidly outnumbered and no plan. Maybe if he was lucky he could grab Evie in a few days when it's the new moon and un-daemonise her.  
Except he wasn't that luckily and Loki would not let that happen.

Anger suddenly over took him and he punched the wall beside him hard enough that he felt one of his knuckles break and cried out in pain but quickly shut himself up, he would not let this get to him. He had to stay calm, be a solider and escape.

_Easy_.

But Loki has Evie! How could he let this happen?! He shouldn't have broken up with her. He should have waited. Followed her. Maybe even kept her prisoner if necessary but he let his emotions take over his duty.

Then he suddenly remembered something. The tracker Tony had given him. It was placed into his suit; Tony had offered him various options ranging from injected into him to being a great big obvious thing on his forehead. It wasn't a constant tracker, but it had voice recognition so with a certain statement it turns on. This way it can't be detected.

Steve just hoped it'd work.

"What a funky town you have here." he muttered softly to himself as he took his shield off his back placing it beside him and brought his legs up to his chest and lent back against the wall cradling his injured hand in his uninjured one and tried to relax.

That however wasn't much of an option a moment later when the door slid open and Bale stepped into the light a small smirk on his face.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tony, Thor and Natasha just stared in shock at the empty seat. Where the hell had they gone?

Natasha immediately got in contact with Clint and then S.H.I.E.L.D.

"What the hell?" Tony yelled. "Where'd they go?"

"Did you catch sight of that other guy?" Thor asked. "He seemed to teleport in then out."

"I did." Natasha nodded, Tony shook his head.

"I saw a flash."

"I did detect a very quick change in the room; it only lasted a few moments. But the energy signature it has left is that of a black hole." JARVIS spoke up. "Except it's getting weaker by the second."

Tony swore, "Right, JARVIS hack into S.H.I.E.L.D's video system. Get the video from this room and see if you can see who that was. Get any information on this man as you can."

"Already on it sir."

Tony nodded, he noticed Steve's mask on the floor by the couch where Steve had been a few moments ago and picked it up to put in a compartment in his suit, ready to give back to Steve when they find him. "Good."

When the others arrived and were told what had happened.

The others came to the apartment within 10 minutes just as JARVIS finished gathering information. "His name is Colin Joút. He was in the army from 2000 to 2003 until he was dishonourably discharged for cowardice after killing an ally soldier to save himself." JARVIS was explaining, the other Avengers could hear him through the ear-com. "He then disappeared for a few years before being caught in 2007 trying to steal money from the national bank and was taken down and placed in a prison made especially for his power. He was released in 2009 and has not been arrested since then. However it is believed he has joined the brotherhood." Tony swore loudly.

"So Steve is trapped with them?" Pepper asked. "The brotherhood?"

"That's what we'd assume." Natasha sighed. "We need to find out everything we can about the Brotherhood. Someone needs to go talk to the X-men again. Tony?"

Tony nodded and left before anyone could disagree.

"We need to find out anywhere the Brotherhood might be hiding. Forests. Bases. Old warehouses. Maybe even on Alcatraz Island. That's where they were before." Clint ordered. "JARVIS, got that?"

"Yes. On it."

"Thor, think Hemidall can see Steve?"

Thor shrugged, "I will ask." and he moved to follow Tony outside leaving Earth quickly.

"Let's get back to the tower. We need to try and find him."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Evie glanced back once last time as the elevator doors closed and caught Steve's eye.

There was a time part of her yelling, screaming for her to throw off Loki's arm and run towards Steve. Hug him. Kiss him. Apologise for everything.

But then doors closed and she looked away, she felt Loki squeeze her shoulder and the feeling went away.

Screw the Avengers. It's Loki she wants now. _Power_.

And Loki led her down the corridor. All the corridor's look the same, boring grey metal with dark wooden floors. She looked up to see a painted white ceiling.  
But then Loki led her to the left and opened a door.

Inside that was a large bedroom, a large Queen sized four poster bed, the duvet dark green and a thin black curtain went around the bed.

Beside the bed on either side were bedside tables with lamps on. Opening the drawer she found underwear and a few interesting looking sex toys. She couldn't help but laugh at that.

The rest of the room was mostly empty except for a wardrobe. Evie wandered over and pulled it open revealing a few of her clothes inside.

And then at the end was something she didn't recognise. She pulled it out and realised it was a black leather suit, ending at a skirt with dark blue lines across it. Along with it was some amour that would cover most of her body. It looked very heavy but after a moment Evie realised that was of Asgardian make and style.

"_Wow_." she murmured and turned to see Loki grinning. He flicked his wrist and suddenly Evie was wearing it and the clothes she had been wearing were folded on the bed.

Evie looked down and gasped. Loki created a mirror in front of her and Evie gaped at herself. The leather fit her curves perfectly; the armour wasn't as bold not as heavy as she was expecting, nor did it pinch her skin as she thought it would. It was subtle across her breasts and stomach. She had leather trousers on under the skirt which ended at mid-thigh.

She felt a heavy weight behind her and realised it was a dark blue cape.

"You look amazing." Loki spoke his voice hushed.

Evie felt herself blush, "Thank you."

"Shame you won't be wearing that for long." Loki added a smirk on his face stepping forward to kiss her softly.

Loki wanted to kill Captain Steve Rogers. But he couldn't. Not just yet. Because of the look on Evie's face when she asked him not to.

He will kill the Captain. But not until his plan is nearly complete.

For now he'll just allow Bale to have his fun. The Captain is trapped and alone. He cannot escape.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Once, when Steve was about 9, he was exploring a forest by himself when visiting relatives with his parents. He'd come across a rabbit-hole, and a few metres along larger, dug-up hole. After a moment, he's realised that the rabbit had been in the hole, its _home_, and something or someone had come across and destroyed it, dragging the rabbit out. Maybe the rabbit survived whatever it was, maybe it didn't, but Steve remembered feeling an overwhelming amount of sadness for the rabbit. He'd never been sure why – he still wasn't sure to this day.

It wasn't a happy memory – but it was often one, when hurt or ill or sad, his mind would dredge it up for him. It was a memory that brought him comfort despite the slightly destructive nature of it and often in bad times he would bring himself back to the forest bathed in the golden light of sunset, wearing his favourite shirt and his feet wet from the river further up.

He'd been thinking of that memory an awful lot lately.

Steve had fought against Bale, tried to stop the man from tying him up but then he felt a palm against his forehead, pain spread across his entire body as if every single nerve had someone stabbing it with a tiny needle.

Then everything went black.

When Steve woke up, he was still in the same room, on the bed leaning against the wall. But this time his arms were chained above him, his feet were chained to the floor.

He tried to pull at the chains but they didn't budge. They were strong. Exceptionally strong. And he was stuck. But he didn't stopping pulling at them. Not even when he felt it grazing his wrists until they bled.

He only stopped when the door opened and Bale walked into the room grinning like before. But this time he spoke, "Ah, captain - on a leash. Suits you. You're just missing one tiny thing." Bale pulled something out of his pocket. It was red leather and after a moment Steve realised it was a dog's collar.

As Bale lent down closer Steve spat in his face. Bale didn't move though, he angrily wiped the spit away, "You're gonna regret that."

Bale reached down and placed his hand splayed out across Steve's chest – which for the first time Steve realised was bare, all he had on were his boxer shorts – and the Steve felt the pain spread through his chest. His heart shuddered against it and he couldn't get air into his lungs.

Until it stopped and his gasped.

Before he could register anything else, he felt the scratchy leather collar be placed around his neck and Bale pulled back smiling softly at Steve. "Beautiful." he murmured.

Steve's eyebrow's rose, "Sorry mate. Torture me all you want, but I don't swing that way."

Bale just rolled his eyes and left the room leaving Steve stuck alone on the bed.

The tracker was in his uniform.

But his uniform is gone. Where exactly he wouldn't know, they could have burnt it for all he knew. But he could hope however that the Avengers got the signal first.

And then he thought of the rabbit – torn from its home with little chance of survival. Maybe the rabbit had been backed up in what it thought was a safe place only to be ripped out.

Sometimes he missed just feeling _safe._

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tony was talking to Storm about Colin Joút when JARVIS started speaking. Tony held up a hand to tell Storm to hold up.

"I have received the panic signal from the Captain but it seems to be scrambled."

"Scrambled how?" Tony asked. Storm and Logan looked at each other curiously.

"Electromagnetic. It's extremely strong."

"Magneto."

"I would expect so."

"Can you tell where the signal's coming from?"

"No."

Tony cursed, "Alright, search anywhere you can for places where the electromagnetics' are too high for you to access."

"At once Sir."

Tony nodded and looked up at the others giving him questioning looks. "JARVIS. He's my AI."

Storm nodded in understanding, "What did he say?"

"Steve has a uh...tracker on his uniform which he has activated to tell us he's in trouble and we need to get to him. But it's been scrambled, electromagnetics. We can't track him."

"We might be able to."

"How? I thought you can't use Cerebro because Magneto's hiding them."

"But if there's a human in there, Aria might be able to find him." Bobby suggested.

"Aria?" Logan growled.

"Yeah, she can find people. Needs something of his though."

Ororo nodded, "What class does she have?"

"I think English with Kitty. I'll go check." Bobby stood up and jogged out the room.

"Do you have anything of the Captains?"

Tony tried to think. He didn't think he had anything on him then he remembered picking up Steve's, Captain America mask.

He pulled it out of a the compartment inside the Iron Man Suit. "His mask." Tony answered handing it to Storm who held it in her hand like the most precious thing she's ever held.

"Perfect." She muttered.

A few moments later the door opened and a young girl who looked about 8 years old walked into the room, she had long wavy brown hair, chocolate brown eyes and a pretty face. Bobby followed behind her.

"Aria, meet Iron Man." Bobby introduced.

Tony tried to smile softly at the young girl who's eyes went wide in shock and waved at him, but Tony thought that it came out more of a grimace.

"Ari, we need you to find someone for us." Storm asked patting the seat beside her which Aria took after a moment, Bobby stayed beside Logan leaning against the wall.

"Who is it?" she asked quietly.

"Steve Rogers." Storm asked. "Captain America."

"No pressure then." she muttered making Tony smirk. "Have you got anything of his? And a map?" Storm held her the mask and then pulled a world map out of the book shelf, laying it out on the floor Tony had to step back to stand beside Logan by the wall so that the large map would fit. Storm leant beside her desk. Aria knelt in the middle of the map and closed her eyes; "I need silence please." she told them in warning.

They watched, fascinated as Aria grip the mask in her left hand and her right hand drifted around the map, she shifted her body until her right hand hovered above the USA. "Defiantly America," She said. She then stood, got out another map.

This one was a more detailed map of America. She sat again, and closed her eyes. Her hand drifted until it hovered over Wyoming before she jerked backwards and her eyes opened suddenly as if she was wrenched away and she was panting heavily. "I-I can't." her eyes were wide and she was breathing heavily. Ororo leant towards her pulling her into her arms to comfort the young obviously scared girl. "There's something stopping me." She said eventually.

"Shit..."Logan cursed under his breath but loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Logan!" Ororo yelled in annoyance at him, "What have I told you about swearing in front of the children?"

"Sorry." Logan muttered disgruntledly not sounding very apologetic; Tony barely held back a chuckle, "Continue Aria."

Aria glanced up at Ororo who nodded with a glare towards Logan, "It's powerful. Whatever it is that's stopping my power from getting in there. But they're definitely Wyoming."

"Where exactly was the power coming from in Wyoming?" Tony asked.

Aria shook her head, her voice shaking, "I-I don't know. I'm sorry. I can't look again that was..."

"Hey, it's ok." Storm told her softly, "You've narrowed the search considerably. Thank you Aria."

"We also know he's alive now." Tony added quietly. He hadn't wanted to consider Steve being dead but he had to. But she could still detect him. That means he's alive right?

Aria nodded slowly relaxing slightly knowing she won't have to do that again, "Do you wanna go back to class?"

Aria shook her head, "Is it alright if I go take a nap?"

"Of course. I'll take you back to your room?" Bobby offered and Aria nodded taking Bobby's outstretched hand.

"Thank you Aria." Tony called watching her and Bobby leave. "I need to get back. Thank you."

Storm nodded, "I'm assuming there might be a fight soon?"

"Probably. If he's in alliance with the Brotherhood I wouldn't be surprised."

"I'll get people ready to join the fight." Storm promised. "You don't have to fight alone."

Tony nodded. "Thank you. We'll need it."

With that he nodded at Logan and left the mansion making his way back to New York. On the way he called the others and told him what had happened. He also got JARVIS to go through anywhere they could be in Wyoming.


	29. The Rescue Begins!

They spent the next two weeks trying to find Steve but nothing useful was found.

It had been over a month since Loki had first let loose the Smoke Daemons and it seemed to be spreading across America and the World. It got to the point in which whenever any of the Avengers went into the public they got lynched.

S.H.I.E.L.D had an underground base on the edge of New York City but the Avengers went to Wyoming where they knew Steve to be.

When doing his rounds, flying around America and Wyoming looking for both Steve and Loki, Tony had to keep hidden, not just from the people but from the Government who most of which had also been daemonised. Tony had to try to stay within the clouds using his stealth suit (Mark 27).

Thor continued do as he usually did knowing that he can escape puny humans if necessary.

Natasha and Clint stayed out of sight unless it becomes imperative for them to venture into the public. They did however continue to do their rounds, just tried to stay more hidden than before. Bruce however stayed inside knowing that if he got crowded by angry people, he was very likely to get angry and Hulk out.

Pepper didn't seem to be hated as much but she was still wary to go out just in case.

Irene and the twins so far were safe but had to be careful encase they were recognised, they stayed in New York, mostly to keep an eye out on the city and because Tony decided it was safest for them.

The Avengers had however managed to find a nice small motel on the edge of Wyoming, Casper where Tony booked out the entire place for a month. The owner hadn't been daemonised, he was just a bit creepy and as soon as they'd gotten to a room Clint burst out with "He looks high!", but he let the Avengers park a few jets on the roof so they dealt with the creepiness of the owner.

Later, Tony growled in frustration and kicked a chair across the room.

"Tony!" Pepper yelled angrily.

Tony looked up at her angry glare, usually he would try to apologise, or at least _pretend_ he was sorry but he was too angry to care right now.

"They could be doing anything to him Pepper. _Anything_!"

"I know but we need to stay calm!"

"I _can't_!" Tony sighed and fell into the nearest seat. "Pepper, I act like I hate him but really...he's the guy I looked up to my _entire_ life. He's my dad's friend. I need to-"

"I know." Pepper stopped Tony by putting a hand on his arm. "We'll find him and he'll be fine. Maybe Evie's had a change of heart and they're back at the tower wondering where the hell we are."

Tony rose a disbelieving eyebrow, "You truly believe that?"

Pepper shrugged, "Evie's a mutant. I'm not ruling anything out."

Tony smirked and nodded in agreement, "Your right, it's just...we've looked _everywhere_. But we can't actually look everywhere. _Ever_. And I just hate it because I wish I could."

"I know." Pepper stepped closer to Tony and hugged him kindly. "C'mon. Everyone's regrouping for lunch in Bruce's rooms."

They walked into the booked out rooms and immediately were hit by the smell of herbs.

Thor was serving some strange food stuff; it looked like giant fish except it was bright purple placed in the middle of the table. Thor had begun to cut into it a serve a large piece to everyone.

"What on heaven, hell, earth and Asgard is that?" Tony asked pointing at it.

"Apparently it's called a Spingenhial." Clint answered.

"Spigeninhal." Thor corrected, "They are seasonal fish to Asgard. They are in season."

"You realise we have a lot more problems than food right now?" Natasha said, despite eyeing the Spigeninhal hungrily.

"Yes. But food is necessary to continue." Thor answered matter-of-fact making everyone chuckle at the simplicity of that statement.

Tony sat down as his plate was served. He took a small amount on his fork and tasted it. It tasted a bit like Mackerel but along with some tomato and herb. It exploded in his mouth and was the perfect mix between chewy and juicy with a nice tang hitting the back of his throat and tongue. After taking the first bite he suddenly realised how hungry he is - when had he last eaten? He actually couldn't remember.

After everyone took a moment to all try it, Clint was the first to breach the subject, this was the first time they have had the chance to group together and discuss their next steps.

"The New Moon's tomorrow." Clint stated simply. "If we don't get Evie by then we have to wait another month."

"A month to un-daemonise her." Tony added in. "We can capture her before though."

"Except _who_ will un-daemonise her?" Clint asked, everyone froze at the cruel statement, "I mean we have to be willing to die for her right?" Thor and everyone else nodded slowly, warily, because they all knew damn well where this was going."Well I don't feel like I'd move very fast to do so. If some of you do, then good. But she _betrayed_ us. Steve could be dead right now because of her," everyone flinched at the harsh words but they knew realistically that it could be true as much as they hoped not.

"It's not her fault." Bruce was quick to remind them. "She cannot control her actions right now."

"No." Clint agreed, "It's not. I've had my head taken over. I killed our friends. You all forgave me and I will forgive her. But that doesn't change how I feel. I genuinely don't think I would be of any help in removing the daemon." Clint paused as everyone took in his words, "How do all of you feel?" He heard a collective heavy sigh in response and that was a good enough answer for him. "_Exactly_."

"The Captain would die for her." Thor answered, "No matter what." But he seemed slightly unsure about the statement.

"What about Irene and the twins?" Pepper asked. "They're coming tomorrow aren't they? To get rid of the Daemon in Irene?" She got a confirming noise from everyone on the table.

"Irene is daemonised herself and at least one of the Twins will have to concentrate on her. Depends on how far the daemon is into her – it doesn't seem like much though."

"I would die for her." Bruce added in tentatively and carefully, he was pleasantly surprised when nobody looked shocked or surprised at that statement. "So the other twin can be with Evie."

"Most of us can." Thor nodded. "She is still pleasant and has not made us..." Thor struggled for a word.

"Want to kill her?" Tony suggested, Thor hesitated but nodded.

"I don't want to kill Evie." Pepper put in.

"What if you could save Steve but it meant killing Evie?" Tony asked simply. "I wouldn't hesitate."

"Steve would never forgive you."

"But he'd still be alive."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Steve barely glanced up as the door opened. He readied himself for the pain that usually came when someone entered the room, usually it was Bale, occasionally it was Loki, but occasionally it was just a random statistic mutant. But when nothing happened, no pain came, he looked up.

Evie stood in the doorway staring at him curiously. She was wearing Asgardian style armour with a long blue cape blowing out behind her despite their being no wind.

Her eyes were completely black and inhuman.

He sighed and looked back down to his bed. His entire body hurt but he could deal with pain. When Evie stared at him so inhumanly, there was nothing there no feelings, nothing just _black_. He couldn't deal with that.

He heard the doors closed and he glanced up hoping Evie had left but she hadn't. He realised she was holding a bowl of soup and bread. It was disgusting, tasted like dirty water, but it was his only meal a day. Due to his arms being chained above his head he had someone feed him, giving him less dignity than he tried to keep.

When he realised Evie was gonna do that for him, he grimaced.

He'd rather starve.

Evie slow sat down on the bed beside him and crossed her legs, facing him. He tried to turn his body away from her but he didn't have much space to move.  
"I tried to get them to unchain your legs but they didn't listen to me." she spoke up as if reading his thoughts. He'd usually love that but now it just crept him out. "I could try again. Or just do it myself?" Steve didn't react. "Steve, look at me."

He didn't. He forced himself to keep his eyes fixed on a spot above the door. Away from her.

Evie growled and reached out to his chin forcing him to look at her. He just glared. "I brought you some food. I put some flavouring in to make it tastier."

"I don't need you to do me any favours." he spat out, no longer being able to stay silent.

Evie sighed, "I just wanna do what I can."

"Get me out of here then."

"I can't."

"Don't be with him."

"I can't do that either." she rested her hand on her stomach and Steve frowned. Was she...? He shook his head.

Would that even work? A god and a human have a child? He didn't know.

"Then leave me." he turned away from her again.

"You need to eat."

"Why do you care if I eat or not?"

Evie seemed to freeze slightly, "I_ don't_." There was a slightly childish quality to her voice as she said that.

"Then why are you here?" when she didn't answer he turned to face her. "Well?" Steve looked her up and down for a minute, trying to read her. He used to be able to read her like any of the books in the library but now...she looked like a book written in Chinese.

"It's the New Moon tonight." She said quietly as if afraid to admit it.

"You know you're daemonised?" Steve wasn't surprised but to hear it confirmed.

"You know I do."

"And you don't care?"

"I don't." Evie shrugged.

"You look conflicted."

Evie hesitated leaning closer to him; Steve took in a deep shuddering breath as she stopped an inch from him. He resisted the urge to lean away from her.

"I love you." Evie breathed.

"No you don't." Steve whispered, "You don't care anymore. You don't love Loki. You think you do but you don't."

"The daemon just stops my regret. It doesn't stop my love."

"So you don't regret the cheating?"

Evie shook her head, "No."

Steve swallowed and pulled back, away from her. Evie froze as she realised what she was doing and pulled away before suddenly standing back up. Holding the soup and left the room.

Steve's stomach rumbled as the food left with her but he forced himself to ignore it. If he let her feed her then he would have broken. He had to stay strong and alive to get through this.

Even if he knew he's probably gonna die soon.

When Bale walked in a few hours later Steve braced himself for the pain.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Guys I think I've found it!" Tony stated a few days later.

The new moon had been and gone. Irene and the Twins came to Wyoming to remove the daemon from Irene and they saw no reason to go back to New York. They wanted to help in any way possible, they soon found out they were less recognised in Wyoming so they went to talk to the locals, find out any information that they can.

"Where?"

"Still in Casper. Right under our fucking noses. JARVIS, get a floor plan of that building."

"Already on it sir."

"We're on our way Stark. Send us your co-ordinates."

"Yeah. Done."

Natasha and Clint were in a jet and turned tail back towards Casper. Irene, Pepper and the twins climbed into another jet and Mycroft into the pilot's seat.  
Thor flew to where he knew Tony to be.

They all met Tony a few miles north of the building he was talking about. He was sat in an abandoned warehouse roof, with a full view of another larger warehouse a few miles south with forests between them. There were a few warehouses within these few miles but Tony seemed to be focusing on this certain one.

"We've already checked these out Stark." Clint said, annoyed when they arrived at Tony's position, he felt like Tony had got there hopes up for nothing.

Tony rolled his eyes, "Use those famous hawk eyes of yours and_ look_." Tony pointed slightly left of the larger warehouse, Natasha pulled out binoculars. There was a small group of men and women, one of them looked to be on fire, another was flying above them; there was one who from this distance looked like he was blending in with the trees, a few others were slightly further away and were playing catch but jumping into impossible heights and running faster than humanly possible. It was like some sort of play area for the mutants.

A few feet from them it looked as if there was an open trap door leading out from the floor; it was very well covered with grass but being wide open made it quite obvious to any onlookers.

It looked almost as if the small group of mutants were just hanging out, like normal teenagers, smoking and having a laugh with their mates.

Natasha passed the binoculars across the group for everyone to see. When Irene had them, someone else turned up and Irene told everyone what she could see. The other person was tall with jet black hair; he looked very green and silver.

"That's Loki," Tony hissed wanting for nothing more to fly over and beat that bastard to death.

Bruce heard the Hulk inside him rumble but forced him down.

'Not yet.' he said internally.

**'When?'**

'Soon.'

Hulk grumbled but quietened down.

They all immediately stopped what they were doing and bowed to Loki, and then it looked as if Loki was yelling at them. After a few minutes they all went back through the door and under the ground, the teenagers dropping the cigarettes, annoyed. The trap door closed the ground looked undisturbed.

"Did you look underground?" Tony asked and Natasha shook her head.

"No. There was no way to get down there. None of the available floor plans had underground space for any of these warehouses."

"Miss Romanoff is correct." JARVIS spoke up, "If they have successfully looked through the warehouse and found nothing then the floor plan won't be of use."  
"Any secret doors they wouldn't have noticed?"

"I very much doubt it sir. Any doors on this floor plan, I'd expect anyone to notice, if they did not then they are more idiotic then previously believed."  
Tony sighed. "Well that was definitely Loki so we need to get in there."

Irene hesitated before lifting her hand, everyone turned to her curiously, "Loki daemonised me right? What if I go in there saying I refused the new moon transformation and came to find them?"

"_No way_." Bruce stated before anyone else could argue back. He blushed slightly at how raised his voice was but didn't back down. "That's too dangerous."

"Loki will sense the lack of daemon in you." Thor added.

"Uh, guys?" Pepper spoke up softly.

"It'll give you the time to sneak in behind me?" Irene shrugged, not having heard Pepper.

"I'm with Bruce. No way." Sherlock said with a nodding Mycroft.

Tony however held up a hand stopping the continued discussion, "_That_, is too dangerous and risky and has too many plot holes. However if you went in there with mutant powers then you can probably get in without too much trouble."

Irene nodded, "Well yeah. But I'm not a mutant. None of us are."

Tony shook his head, "No. But you do have the power of sonic noise." Irene cocked her head to the side in question and Tony pulled the Sonic screwdriver from his pocket changed a setting on it and handed it to her. "I've modified it a bit, press the button and it'll emit a sonic piercing noise and will search for the right pitch to vibrate at to smash glass. It'll hurt your ears but," he handed ear plugs, "Put them in. You'll still be able to hear me; it just stops you from hearing the sonic noise."

"_Guys_." Pepper tried again.

Irene nodded and put them into her ears.

"Hold on, why Irene?" Bruce asked, "One of us can go. Natasha, Clint? They're better at sneaky-sneaky."

Tony rose an eyebrow at Bruce, "You call yourself a genius. We'll all be recognised."

"I won't be. I'll go."

"_Guys_!"

Tony shook his head, "First, the sonic noise affects the hulk even with the ear plugs in. C, no B, no two, I trust you explicitly and your ability to control the other guy buy what if you see someone torturing Steve. If you see Loki, or Evie or even Steve Dead?" Bruce flinched and the Hulk growled, "Can you really control yourself then?"

Bruce hesitated but finally shook his head, "But the Hulk will protect Steve. It doesn't matter if we destroy everyone else."

"And risk Loki getting away?" Thor shook his head. "No. To dangerous."

"I'll go instead," Sherlock stated, "I'm probably the least publicised person. Someone's bound to recognise all of you and Irene. Maybe Croft, but I stick to the shadows and stay quiet. I'll go."

"YOU_IDIOTS_!" Pepper yelled and everyone jumped and turned to face her confused at why she had just yelled at them, "_Look_!" she pointed towards the warehouse. The roof had opened out and mutants were pouring out. Hundreds and thousands, some were flying out of the roof, others were coming through various trap doors around the entire warehouse.

All of them gapped. They did not expect so many.

"Tony go tell the X-Men." Natasha ordered, when Tony didn't move, "_Now_!" She yelled. Tony took one last glance at the mutants leaving the warehouse for either Steve or Evie before taking off into the air hoping he wouldn't be seen by the flying mutants.

"Avengers? Romanoff? Barton?" Fury's voice suddenly came through the ear comm.

"Sir?" Natasha answered.

"What the hell is going on? There's smoke coming out the top of Stark towers and kids and teenagers have gone mad."

"What?!"

"Mad how?" Thor asked.

"_Aggressive_. They started to attack each other and then the teachers. All schools, colleges, universities. All of them."

"That smoke may be air daemons." Thor murmured thoughtfully to himself.

"In New York?" Natasha asked Fury.

"Yeah."

"The mutants must be on their way there."

"_Mutants_?" Fury demanded.

"Yeah we found there base. Just in time to see them leave."

"Get to New York. _Now_."

"On our way."

Everyone looked around at each other, the twin's shared a long look before Sherlock spoke up, "Croft and I will go look for Steve." Sherlock stated, no argument in his voice, he took the sonic from Irene and plucked the ear plugs from her ears, cleaned them and put them in his own ears, "Got another pair?"

Everyone shook their heads, Mycroft shrugged. "I'll go in anyway, just attempted to cover my ears before it goes off."

"That won't work very well."

Mycroft shrugged, "I'm not letting him go in alone. You lot get to New York."

Bruce stepped closer to Sherlock and held out his hand for the sonic, Sherlock rose an eyebrow in question.

"I'll show you how to change the settings and the other necessary settings for a backup plan." Sherlock nodded and handed over the sonic. "This unlocks and locks doors. This will destroy electronics, so point it at cameras Etc. This one, don't use unless necessary but it will give everyone in the room – without those earplugs in - a cardiac arrest, but if Croft doesn't have earplugs so be careful. And then of course the sonic noise. There's a few other's but none I'd see to be useful."

"Pretending to be a mutant will no longer be useful. Now we're just trying to find Steve, even if that means hiding and fighting?" Sherlock confirmed and got nods in answer.

"Now all of you _go_. Save New York!" Mycroft ordered.

"Be careful." Natasha told them softly.

"I can go with you." Irene offered but Sherlock shook his head.

"You can help in New York. New York needs as many people as they can."

Irene wanted to argue but she couldn't so instead she leaped forward grabbing them both into a tight hug and kissed their cheeks, "Be careful guys ok? I love you both."

The twins grinned, "We know."

Irene laughed as they both kissed each of her cheeks and then she turned and joined the others into the jets taking off towards New York. Thor nodded once more before taking off into the air behind the jets.

Once they were gone the twins glanced around, "How do we get down?"

They managed to find a way down the side of the building and begun the walk a few miles south through the woods and towards the warehouse.

Sherlock sighed as he pulled out his phone to send a quick text.

**'Hey, lot of crap happening atm. Get out of NY ASAP. Be careful. I may not be able to talk for a few days. I'll be fine, contact you when I can. Love you xxx'  
**  
"Do you truly love her?"

"Hmm?"

"Natalie. Do you love her?"

Sherlock hesitated, "It's only been a few months but yeah. I think I do. She's patient and kind. With everything going on right now, I probably would have left me rather than be dragged into it. But she hasn't."

Mycroft nodded. "Good. She's a lovely girl."

"I can't wait for you to get a proper stable boyfriend. Although make sure he's not too hot. Otherwise Irene will flirt with him. _Constantly_."

Mycroft laughed, "She flirt's with everyone _constantly_ anyway."

Sherlock laughed with him. "She does."

They fell into silence for a moment before Mycroft took a deep shuddering breath. "You ready for this?"

"Nope. You?"

Mycroft laughed, "No. It's gone too quickly. I always expect at least a day at least to prepare for something like this."

Sherlock nodded, "Same. But waiting any longer than necessary..."

"Could be disastrous." Mycroft finished despondently.

They walked the rest of the way in complete silence, comforted only by the others footsteps beside them.

Halfway there was when they finally saw signs of life, some of the mutants had come this way. Where they had gone since then, they had no idea. They began to walk slower, being more careful, wary of bumping into mutants in the dark woods.

"They've gone west." Mycroft worked out eventually, tracking them.

"New York's east isn't it?"

"Yeah. There's a large field West though. They might have jets or something. New York is _way_ too far to walk."

After another 20 minutes the warehouse was in sight and they walked towards it carefully, all the mutants seemed to have long since left, the only sign that they had been there were the tramped grass and the trees showed signs of disturbance.

Slowly they walked into the clearing, Sherlock kept his hand on the sonic screwdriver at the ready. They reached the spot where they believed the trapped door to be. Mycroft found the handle and attempted to open but when that failed Sherlock used the Sonic screwdriver to open it.

Looking inside they found a ladder going down about four metres and long darkened corridor. The light from the sun streamed down a few metres but there was nothing specific that they could see. Glancing at each other they shrugged and climbed down the ladder.

"Shoulda brought a touch." Mycroft muttered.

Sherlock pulled one from an inside pocket. Mycroft chuckled, not sounding surprised but it quickly became unnecessary as the corridor lit up the moment they moved.


	30. On the Roof

Halfway back to New York Thor contacted them through the comm system, "It is air daemons." He stated simply.

"What?" Natasha asked.

"I can sense Air Daemons. Millions of them. Mostly towards New York. I can feel a few around the rest of America."

They flew for another twenty minutes before New York City came into site and they could see that it was in chaos. There were fires across the city, cars had crashed and the army was out trying to stop children from attacking. It looked like there were riots against families and against the US army. From this distance it looked as if they're using gas and tranquilisers to knock them out rather that kill them.

"Fury wasn't kidding..." Clint murmured.

"They've turned into Reavers." Irene said softly.

"What?"

"Uh from the show Firefly. The Reavers, they were people that just...well, they were _aggressive_."

"How were they stopped?" Natasha asked wondering if the idea has been duplicated by Loki and Evie since Natasha knows Evie loved that show.

"Killed."

"These are _kids_. We can't kill them."

"No." Irene agreed.

"Air daemons right? Thor how long do the Air Daemon's last?" Clint asked, "Any counter daemon or anything?"

"They last 24 hours. To my knowledge there is no way to dispel them, we have to wait it out." Thor answered.

"We don't have time; the mutants might turn up at any moment."

Irene frowned in thought, "Do the air daemon's just affect children?"

"No. It will affect anyone that is within the vicinity to be hit by them. Often you have to be in the same proximity as it for at least 24 hours to become _this_ aggressive." Thor explained.

"How come it is just children and teenagers then?" Irene wondered out loud.

"And some colleges, which includes some adults." Pepper added.

"The Stark Banner." Bruce realised.

"What?"

"Fury said there smoke coming from the top of the Tower? The SB is there."

"And what does that have to do with this?"

"It has tablet devices going to every school and college in New York. We had begun to spread across America."

"But you and Tony made it." Pepper stated.

"Tony was daemonised for a while, don't forget. I checked over anything he made during that time, it all looked safe but Tony... Tony is smarter than me when he wants to be. If he really doesn't want me knowing about something I won't know. He made a few changed to the SB, I looked at them but it all looked normal. Basic updates, y'know. But there was a switch on the side, it didn't do anything. I assumed it was just unfinished but had a bad feeling about it. I completely forgot until now." Bruce shrugged helplessly as he finished.

"Will stopping it stop the kids?" Clint asked.

"It's worth a try." Bruce shrugged.

"What about drugging them?" Irene suggested and everyone looked at her curiously. "Use a calming drug. Whatever it is in the SB that's sending out the Air daemons must be changing the daemon into binary or data, do you think it'll be able to do that with a tranquilizer or something?"

"I don't know. What if they don't have the SB with them?"

Irene shrugged, "Haven't got a clue. That was just a suggestion."

"We'll drop you off on the tower. Try and stop it. Use Hulk Tranquilizer if necessary. You can't join in with the fight. Hulking out will endanger the kids."

Bruce nodded, he had expected as much. "I can't do it on my own. I'll need another pair of hands if I wanna do this correctly."

"I will." Irene volunteered immediately; she wanted to be with Bruce. Bruce nodded thankful for the help and to have Irene close by, to know she's safe. The Hulk relaxed at that thought along with Bruce.

The tower soon came into view, Fury hadn't been very specific when he said smoke, it looked more like gas, like when looking just above a flame. It was spreading slowly towards them.

"If we breathe that in..."

"It will not affect you. You must be there for a long time to affect you. Also I believe that is empty of daemons, it's just the mother ship."

"Fucking huge mother ship." Irene murmured.

They landed on top of the Stark tower, Bruce and Irene ran towards the SB while Natasha, Clint and Pepper ran inside.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tony dodged through all the defences and crashed straight through the great double doors into the school, he stopped just inside the hallway and was immediately surrounded by kids and teachers alike, various weapons and powers were pointed towards him until Storm stepped forward stared at Tony for a moment until he lifted the face mask.

"He's safe." Storm told everyone and slowly they calmed down and released hold of their power or weapon. "_Tony_." Storm spoke warmly with a hint of anger in her tone, "Trust you to make an entrance." Tony chuckled but he had no time to catch up with her right now. He glanced around at everyone around him, untrusting of them. "Everyone get back to class." Storm told them, nodding at the teachers that seemed hesitant to leave her alone with him, the kids all sighed collectively, interested when something seemed to be going on but quickly dispersed.

"How many X-men are there?" Tony asked as soon as they were alone, except for a couple of the teachers who he vaguely recognised.

"There are about 20 or us that are fully trained. Another 20 in various stages, but most of them are kids, they aren't fighting." Tony noticed how she decided for them. "Is this to do with New York?" Tony cocked his head in question, "Something on the news, kids gone crazy."

Tony shrugged, "Possibly they're connected but round up all the X-men and anyone you know that can help. The Brotherhood are on their way." Tony told her simply. Storm froze, the huge muscled guy in the corner growled, a woman with her head poking through the ceiling and suddenly fell all the way down, falling to the ground between Tony and Storm. Tony jumped and pointed his lasers at her before he realised that the blur that had randomly descended from the celling was Kitty. She smiled sheepishly.

"On their way _here_?" Storm asked ignoring Kitty's entrance.

"No. To New York. Well, we _think_ New York at least because of the kids but there's hundreds. We need all the help that we can get wherever they are."

Storm nodded, fear in her eyes, last time the brotherhood became this big they lost a few of their own. But the X-men are bigger than they have been in a long time now and much, _much_ strong. "Go. Get back to New York. I'll get everyone ready."

Tony nodded, "Thank you. Be careful." With that he turned and flew back out of the hole he had created.

As soon as he was in the air he made a quick phone call, "Stark. To what do I owe this pleasure?" A voice spoke after a few rings and a face materialised in the corner of his screen, the man was sending Tony a glare.

"Reed, no time to fight right now. Brotherhood attacking. Assemble the four or whatever."

Reed Richards blinked, that he wasn't expecting, last time Tony contact him was to find out about how his stretching suit was created.

"Right, on it." Reed answered finally, cutting off the chat.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Loki smirked as he led the enormous group of Mutants to the large clearing where the jets were hidden and immediately everyone went straight to their assigned jet. It's time.

Slowly two by two they lifted off and took off in various directions. Finally it was their turn and they headed towards New York.

Evie stood beside him almost shaking with anticipation, leaning down he kissed her softly ignoring the mutants around them.

"Soon, my love, we will rule this world." He whispered, so no one else but her could hear. Special for her.

"We'll make them kneel." Evie promised.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sherlock and Mycroft tensed and Sherlock's hand tightened on the Sonic screwdriver, they looked around for signs of life but after a few moments assumed that the lights were movement based.

"C'mon," Sherlock spoke quietly; he turned the touch off but handed it to Mycroft so that he could have at least one hand free as the other held the sonic tightly. Mycroft put it in his pocket so that would be easy to grab and patted his side to check his gun **was** still there.

They walked slowly down the corridor, footsteps echoing off the metal. They finally reached a cut-off point and they could go left or right. "We are _not_ splitting up." Mycroft murmured.

"Agreed. Flip a coin?"

Mycroft chuckled but found a coin in his pocket anyway. "Heads left, tails right?" Sherlock nodded (the flipping coin thing had been Sherlock's idea when they were thirteen and had somehow got lost in Orlando when visiting a relative) and Mycroft flipped it.

"Heads." They both said together and turned left without hesitation, only glancing to the right to check there was nobody there.

They walked for at least half an hour, flipping a coin to choose the direction to head in, every so often they'd hit a dead end with a door above them opening to another place around the warehouse so when they found stairs heading downwards they couldn't be happier.

"How many floors do you think there are?" Sherlock asked.

"Hopefully not too many but considering the amount of mutants? I'd say quite a few."

"I was afraid you'd say that."

Mycroft paused, turned to face Sherlock and grinned cheekily, "What could possibly go wrong?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Natasha, Clint and Pepper spent a few minutes finding items that would make the Reaver-like humans unconscious or drowsy (the amount needed varied from person to person so they'd gone with a low dosage, just in case) without actually killing them and then left the tower to go outside and help. They were immediately attacked by kids and teenagers snarling and scratching at them.

All three began to inject them with tranquiliser and a few of the adults they just hit over the head just enough to knock them unconscious for a few hours.

As they ran through the streets they found some kids badly injured from fighting, most were bleeding and heavily bruised but didn't seem to care. There were groups in buses and vans travelling around and picking up the unconscious people taking them off the streets so as not to get any more injured.

That was when they got the call. The brotherhood wasn't just coming to New York; they had landed in Washington, California, Texas, Kansas and Montana so far.

They were still going, spreading across America. A small army in each state. They were over throwing the people and the government. Taking over America state by state. Many were still traveling towards New York.

Thor turned around and went back towards Wyoming hoping to find the mutants in the air and fight them there.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Loki grinned as they received news that most of the brotherhood had landed easily in the various states and still going. An army of 100 in each state they had decided on and still travelling eastwards.

The travel didn't take too much time and before long the destination was in sight, the Stark tower. They would guard the device and watch as New York was taking over by Mutants, if necessary, they would fight. Loki expected some of the Avengers to have worked it out and be there already trying to stop it but he was ready for that.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"'Rene!" Bruce stated after a moment of staring at the SB, "I'm gonna go down to the lab; find anything I can, tranqs and stuff. Try and open it up, there should be a panel on the side. I think the password – if asked – Is Tony&Bruce5ever, with the and symbol and the number, not word, five." Bruce blushed as he told her that and Irene grinned.

"Good password."

"Tony set it." Bruce shrugged helplessly before running inside to find the items they would need, he chose the stairs over the elevator for speed and ran hoping his heartbeat wouldn't get too high.

He managed to get a large tank of tranquiliser for the Hulk kept as supply by Bruce himself not fully trusting himself despite Tony's attempts to get rid of it. He ran back up the stairs but stopped just inside the door, Irene wasn't alone.

Irene watched as Bruce ran inside and turned around to the SB; Irene bent down beside it and began looking for a panel to open it up. Finally she found a small square spot with a small line around it. Well hidden. She scratched at it feeling a gap in the metal for a door shape and she began attempting to pull at it when she heard a jet above her. It wasn't alone, it was along with various army copters in the sky but this one was closer than the others making her glance up.

Irene grabbing hold of the gun in her pocket turned off safety and got ready as the jet hovered above her. She squinted looking up at it, it was silhouetted by the sun but she could see the door open and a figure jump down, a moment later another figure followed and the first caught the second.

She heard screams from below, she spared a quick glance and saw more jets hovering around New York, some landed all hand mutants inside who immediately began to fight and to kill civilians and soldiers alike.

The jet above her flew on making Irene spin back around to see the two figures than had jumped from the jet. Loki and Evie stood before her, watching her. Irene took a few steps forward to hear them over the wind.

Evie's outfit was similar to Loki's, blue leather and metal plates.

"Well I expected better defences to be honest." Loki commented.

"I don't like you." Irene told him bluntly, Loki just smirked.

"I do not like you either, my dear and it seems you're in my way. What a _shame_." He pointed his staff at her. Irene tensed up and glanced towards Evie expecting her to stop him but instead Evie turned her back and wandered to the edge of the roof glancing across America.

"Are you gonna Avada Kadrava me?" Irene asked sounding a lot calmer than she felt. She knew this was how she was going to die, after making a stupid comment.

Loki chuckled, "Voldemort took too long. He wasted time, showing off to his Death Eaters." Irene's eyes widened at surprise of Loki actually _knowing_ about Harry Potter, "I will just... go for it." He seemed slightly uncomfortable saying the last part of the sentence but with it a bright light shot from his staff. Irene contemplated closing her eyes for the imminent death but decided she wanted to be facing Loki even at her death, not hiding from him – but a figure jumped in front of Irene and the light hit him instead.

Bruce slumped to the floor unconscious and Irene screamed in fear for Bruce and fell to her knees beside him, hurriedly checking his pulse, whispering his name and pushing his hair out of his face, relieved when she felt a pulse, it was slow but there.

Loki just grinned. "Well getting rid of him was earlier than expected."

"He's the _Hulk_. I very much doubt it killed him." Evie spoke up softly from across the roof, she had now reached the Stark Banner and was inspecting it. Loki scowled.

"Ruin all my fun."

Evie turned to face him and winked, that was when Irene turned to proper see Evie and saw her face through the fog and Evie looked truly evil. Her eyes were black and Irene could see all the veins in her face **–** they were black **– **when had that happened?

Evie just grinned at the pain happening across America as more mutants joined the fight. She could just about see Iron Man as he flew into the middle of New York and saved some civilian from behind hit by some sludge stuff, which as soon as it hit the dusty concrete floor splattered outwards in a radius far too big to be normal before shrinking slowly to the size of a fist.

Irene could hear the Avengers in the ear comm; apparently the mutants weren't just in New York but in many different states. Irene mentally cursed but she had other things to worry about at this point in time so she ignored the conversation for now and turned her attentions on her old best friend.

"Evie!" Irene yelled across the wind and the screaming down below and turned her back on Loki knowing how dangerous it is but Evie was the only one who would be able to stop him, "Stop this madness! You're daemonised, _please_ realise that."

Evie shrugged, "I know. But it's easier this way. I can stop this pain to everyone I can help mutants across the world. I've always wanted that! Ever since mum called me a freak, ever since Tim broke up with me when he found out! I can _stop_ that happening. Without the daemon I wouldn't be willing."

"You _shouldn't_ be willing!"

"Why _not_? You know I would have been happier with more rights as a mutant."

"All that stuff that happened, Evie it was for the better! Your mum finally gave you that reason you needed to move out. If Tim hadn't broke up with you, you won't have gotten with _Jake_! Or _Steve_!"

"Jake _died_!" Evie yelled, for the first time pain showing through her features, tears sprung to her eyes, "Jake _died_. He was _mortal_, there could have been a mutant that could stop cancer but couldn't tell anyone because they'd be treated like an alien, cut open until there power is of use to non-mutants! And I won't blame them for not coming forward. I wouldn't want that. But now they _can_!"

"They'd still be experimented on. Even mutants will want a way to stop cancer even when that mutant dies." Irene answered, her voice beginning to shake still very aware of Loki and the power he holds. When suddenly she felt Bruce shift, his skin getting warmer than before, warmer than it should be, stealthy she reached for his pulse again and felt it faster than a normal human.

"We'll treat him better." Evie continued, talking about the possible cancer-curing mutant.

"Will you? _Truly_? You'll be Queen and you feel no guilt. You'll throw him in to be experimented on and use his DNA to stop cancer even if it means they'll die. And you won't _care_."

Evie shrugged, "It's easier this way."

Before Irene could reply Bruce's bloodshot eyes shot open and he pushed Irene out of the way, she skidded across the roof and hit into the SB landing beside Evie. She cried out in pain but sat up as soon as she could and looked towards Bruce. Slowly he began to turn green and his entire body grew his muscles ripping through his shirt until he was twice the size of himself, then three times. He blocked out all view of Loki across the roof.

It was terrifying, his eyes were on her, apologizing, until they were no longer Bruce and he became the Hulk. He pulled his eyes off her and his head shot around turning towards Loki.

This time Loki was ready, he shot a blasting curse at Hulk as he dived out of the way. Hulk frowned and scratched at the spot that the blasting curse hit. Loki murmured a curse under his breath as the Hulk lunged at him again.

Evie rapidly looked around the entire roof until her eyes noticed the tranquilisers beside the door, across the roof.

At the same time Irene saw them and the two girls glanced at each other then back at the tranquilisers. Loki was ducking beneath the Hulks huge arm but neither women spared a glance knowing that they can take care of themselves.

Irene was immediately on her feet sprinting to the door barely a second after Evie had begun to run.

Irene was reminded of school sports day in 4th grade. Irene and Evie were in the same race, neither of them ran very often and weren't particularly fast, but neither of them were competitive so didn't care if they won or lost. But Irene remembered as the race begun they both looked at each other and grinned, Irene sped up and Evie did the same, they were far behind the fastest runners, in front of the slowest but that didn't matter. On that day they'd started laughing half way through the race, so much so they had to slow down. Neither came last, though, but now there would be no laughing.

They'd just wanted to beat each other. They reached the line at exactly the same time, to the millisecond.

Irene glanced at Evie as they both had to duck out of the way of Loki being thrown through the air and knew that at that moment Evie was thinking the same thing.

Irene dived through the air but she was to slow, Evie reached them first and Irene reached her and tackled Evie to the ground, wrestling the tranquilisers out of Evie's hands and rolled off her ducking into a fighting stance and stared at Evie willing her to try and get them.

"_Bitch_!" Evie yelled. Irene did not reply.

Hulk roared behind them and they both turned to see the Hulk and Loki wrestling to the ground.

"Scare you to see you boyfriend like that?" Evie asked conversationally standing between Irene and the SB.

Irene shrugged not willing to be distracted; her eyes darted around looking for a way past Evie, but Irene knew even if she got to the SB she wasn't sure how to use it.

"Kinda hot really." Irene answered and Evie's eyes narrowed, "You boyfriend turns blue, mine turns green, I think we're developing a pattern here."

"Blue is hotter than green," Evie smirked, "Ever seen Avatar?"

Irene laughed, "True that but at least mine is able to beat yours into the ground."

Evie's head shot around in panic, looking to see if Loki was still breathing. But instead saw that Loki was now stood by the SB goading Hulk towards him. It only took Irene a moment to work out what Loki wanted. He wanted the SB destroyed and Hulk wouldn't hesitate if it meant stopping Loki.

It all seemed to happen at once, she saw Hulk bending into a crouch ready to pounce, Evie had turned back to face Irene and had pulled out a gun. Irene screamed Bruce's name needed to stop him. The Hulk spun around to face her but that just gave Loki the advantage and he swiped his staff at the Hulk throwing him through the air until he landed on the edge of the roof.

Irene turned back to Evie and saw the gun, Irene froze in surprise, "You wouldn't Evie. Would you?"

Evie shrugged, "I honestly don't know."


	31. Mutant HQ

Mycroft stopped so suddenly that Sherlock bumped into his back. "Cr-"

Mycroft covered his mouth quickly and forced him backwards, back around the corner and sent him a 'shut up' look. Sherlock nodded and Mycroft released his mouth and slowly they both peaked around the corner to see a small group of teenagers and after a moment, they realised there were some of the same teenagers from before, which had been playing outside in the clearing.

"Shit." Sherlock murmured he peaked his head around to see them; one of them looked like a lizard, forked tongue and black eyes to go with his green scaly skin and a long lizard like face. Another one was hovering above them and laughing. Lastly there was a boy just leaning back against the wall and watching the hovering girl with a huge grin on his face. "What do we do now?" Sherlock whispered when he turned back.

"Turn around and go the other way?" Mycroft suggested.

"Haven't you ever played video games Croft?" Mycroft cocked his head in question. "When you meet enemies you're going in the right direction."

Mycroft chuckled darkly and nodded, "You think that they're here to guard Steve? Wouldn't they to take need as many mutants as there are if they wanna rule the world or whatever the job is?"

Sherlock shrugged, "Loki looked angry. Maybe it's a punishment." Sherlock shrugged again not knowing what else to say, it made sense what he was saying.

"So, sonic?"

"Cover your ears then."

Mycroft nodded and covered his ears tightly and nodded. Sherlock used one hand to hold his gun at the ready and the other to hold the sonic and pressed the button. Immediately a horrible high pitched squeal was emitted, piercing the ears. Mycroft groaned in pain but nodded at Sherlock and they both ran forwards towards the mutants.

Mycroft was slowed from the pain but he still managed to run past the mutants that had all fallen to the floor covering their ears and crying out in pain.

The reptile boy's 'ears' had begun to bleed, hovering girl was lying in the floor in the same position as she was before but covering her ears and writhing in pain. The boy had done the same but he had gone into the foetal position.

The twins ignored them and continued running down the corridor when suddenly the sonic was wretched from Sherlocks hand. The high pitched squeal stopped; immediately Sherlock turned around gun at the ready eyes searching for who had taken the sonic but saw nobody behind him.

Instead the Sonic was floating in the air, but when he darted towards it, it moved quickly upwards out of his reach. He considered just leaving it and running but then what if Steve's locked up? Or even leaving the sonic screwdriver in the wrong hands could be disastrous.

So he darted towards it again but it just moved further away from him, one of the mutants laughed, he was tall with cropped blonde hair. Telekinetic. The word popped into Sherlock's head as the gun was pulled from his other hand and thrown across the corridor. Slowly the reptile boy stood up and wiped at the blood as hoover girl slowly lifted herself into the air.

"Neat treat." the telekinetic grinned and suddenly Sherlock felt himself being thrown across the room and he hit the wall, "Mines cooler." Mycroft pulled out his gun but it was thrown across the room again. "Don't you watch Doctor Who? No guns."

"Let him go!" Mycroft yelled.

"How about... _no_?" the mutant boy said as his flicked his hand and slowly Sherlock was pushed upwards until he was on the ceiling and then the pressure left and he dropped to the floor. Mycroft ran to him and bent down to Sherlock's side as he slowly stood up, allowing Mycroft to help him to his feet. Both bothers were looking around furiously trying to find a way out of him, but so far their only plan is, don't die and get Steve.

"Well, nice speaking to you," Mycroft grinned politely, "But we gotta go, people to rescue, an awful lot of running to do, you know the drill. Talk to you son though."

The twins both took a step backwards but then hit into something, glancing around there was a girl with large green eyes and brown hair. She hadn't been in the group a moment ago.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tony arrived in New York soon after the Brotherhood had begun to arrive, he watched as they landed and didn't hesitate to fight against the civilians and soldiers.

He watched as one of them killed two of the aggressive children. Tony didn't hesitate flying towards that mutant and shooting him in the back, killing him instantly.

"What the hell is going on?" He yelled into the comm's.

"Tranq the aggressive kids. Get them outta danger. Stop the Brotherhood." Natasha answered simply.  
Tony nodded despite nobody could actually see his nodded, "Got it."

"I could do with a lift Stark." Clint asked and gave out his coordinates. Tony nodded again and flew straight towards Clint and grabbed him. Clint tensed up ready for flight immediately and then took off towards the nearest highest building placing him down.

"This good?"

Clint glanced around and nodded, "Perfect. Hold up," He looked towards Stark tower, "Get to the tower. Bruce has hulked. Gonna need you to put tranquilisers into the SB."

"The SB? What's that gotta do with anything?" Tony darted around trying to figure it out.

"Explain later. You need to get up there and do it."

"On it." Tony nodded and took off towards the tower but looked down to see an 8 year old kid in the middle of a fight with a mutant that looked as if their arms were made of wood. Tony flew down, grabbed the kid, shot the man with a blaster and then tranq'ed the struggling kid and carried him towards soldiers that held other kids.

With that Tony turned and flew up towards the tower, stopping for a moment to take in the scene. Loki and the Hulk were circling each other as Evie and Irene looked like they were about to fight as they talked by the door to the tower, Irene held a large box.

Loki stopped suddenly beside the SB and begun goading the Hulk towards him.  
Irene screamed Bruce's name and the Hulk spun around to face her but then Loki used that distraction to swipe his staff at the Hulk throwing him through the air until he landed on the edge of the roof, digging his large fingers into the roof to keep himself on there and stood up quickly only to see Loki flying towards him.

Tony didn't waste a moment and flew towards Loki, grabbing him around the waist and pushing him with full thrusters until they were far from the roof before releasing him allowing him to fall to the ground.

Evie had spun around to see what was going on. Irene watched Tony for a moment before taking her chance and running behind Evie, holding the box of tranquilizers and ran towards the SB, wishing she had a sonic screwdriver right now.

Tony then landed beside her as a shot went off hitting the side of the SB. Tony immediately jumped in front of Irene protecting her from another couple of bullets before he turned around and shot a blaster towards Evie, she was blown backwards through the door into the tower.

Hulk watched her go before turning and he jumped off the side of the tower and towards where Loki had fallen.

Irene turned to face Tony who was watching Hulk and then opened up the panel into the SB. Irene turned back to where Evie had landed but she was gone, "Tony, I need to go after Evie."

Tony glanced around and saw that she was gone and nodded, "Go. Be careful."

"I will." Irene ran towards the door and through it thinking that Evie was a few months pregnant and was hopefully not going to take risks - she wouldn't want to harm the unborn child, after all.

Tony turned back to the SB and looked at the wires inside. Inside the suit JARVIS had identified each wire and what it was connected to - there was one single wire leading upwards to the middle of the SB ariel that JARVIS couldn't identify.

Tony reached in and followed it upwards until it reached the top furiously wracking his brain for any adjustments he made when he was daemonised but came up short.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Natasha and Clint watched as jets appeared over New York and from them jumped down people, mutants.  
Both agents sighed heavily and turned to face each other. Even the brainwashed kids had stopped fighting to watch the mutants land.

Barely a few minutes later Tony's voice reached their ears through the comm. "What the hell is going on?" He yelled.

"Tranq the aggressive kids. Get them outta danger. Stop the Brotherhood." Natasha answered simply from beside Clint as she mentally worked out a plan. She turned to face Clint, nodded once and jumped into action as a mutant (who Clint was sure had pure red eyes) landed beside her and shook the ground with his landing.

Clint looked upwards trying to find the best advantage point. When he found it he spoke to Tony. "I could do with a lift Stark." Clint asked and gave out his coordinates. A moment later Iron Man landed beside him and grabbed his back. Clint tensed up automatically ready for flight and then took off towards the nearest highest building that Clint pointed out, landing a moment later.

"This good?" Tony asked.

Clint glanced around and nodded, "Perfect. Hold up," He looked towards Stark tower and saw what looked like a giant green thing lunging at something else. Hulk. Damnit Clint inwardly cursed. "Get to the tower. Bruce has hulked. Gonna need you to put tranquilisers into the SB."

"The SB? What's that gotta do with anything?" Tony demanded.

"Explain later. You need to get up there and do it."

"On it." Tony nodded and took off towards the tower. Clint then glanced around New York, he was high up but there were still buildings hiding many more mutants from view. He got some explosive arrows ready and aimed at the largest group of mutants in his sight far below him.

Natasha found herself in battle with a man four times her size, he was strong but her small size and speed gave her the advantage and she dropped to the ground and slid between his legs coming out the other side. As he tried to turn around she used some rope to noose and throw around his neck and pulled hard, using all her weight until he came off balance and began falling towards her. Natasha quickly rolled out of the way wincing as her cheek caught on some metal as the guy fell to the floor with a large bang, she was pretty sure that he cracked the ground. She quickly tied up his legs and arms but halfway through that someone attacked her from behind.

She reached around, grabbed whatever it is by the hair and flipped it around, it landed heavily on their back and turned out to be a 6 year old girl. She growled at Natasha and attempted to stand but then cried out in pain and Natasha realised she'd broken the girls arm. She quickly shot her with a tranquiliser before picking her up moving her to a safer location, a small building where groups of unconscious children were placed with a few guards watching her.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Thor spun around in the air and shot back towards the mutants heading towards New York. He wanted to catch as many of them in the air as he can. When he heard Irene say Loki's name in the comm he knew he had to get to New York. Get his brother. But as that thought processed hundreds of jets came into view.

Taking a deep breath Thor shot towards them and into action.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Oh hello." Sherlock greeted the girl, sounding calmer than he felt, "Would you uh...mind letting us past please?"

"Yeah. That ain't happening." the girl then grabbed Sherlock by his neck and threw him across the corridor with strength impossable for her height and build. As he hit the wall Sherlock thought to himself that he needs to find a way to stop being flung across the room.

When Mycroft tried to run to his brother he was stopped by a strong hand gripping his neck and pulling him backwards and then lifted into the air, his feet kicked as he tried to reach the floor but instead he was slammed against the wall but he couldn't see who had grabbed him and was holding him up. He could however feel a hand on his neck and he reached out to grip the arm attached to that hand. _She's invisible! _Mycroft realised.

Mycroft spared a glance towards Sherlock; he was leaning against the wall, a cut on his forehead bleeding down his cheek as he slowly trying to stand up through his obvious dizziness as everyone else's attention was on Mycroft.

"Huh, clever trick, love." he managed to get out through the small amount of breathing space; he had to keep them distracted and forced himself not to look at

Sherlock. "Are you...naked then?" he winked at her and grinned.

He heard a growl a lot closer than he had expected, "You and your brother aren't getting out of here." she hissed right beside his ear, "And you're not getting the prisoner."

"_Prisoner_?" Mycroft asked, and he saw the reptile boy glance over his shoulder. Mycroft followed his vision and saw an outline in the silver wall and a slight gap between the floor and the wall.

A door.

He could feel the woman trying to figure out what to say. He reached down slowly with one hand to feel his own gun in his pocket, "You're...you're not here for the prisoner?"

"We're here..." Sherlock had begun to crawl towards the sonic screwdriver and was changing the settings. "To explore." Mycroft answered - he could almost hear Sherlock thinking _really, Mycroft? To explore?!_

"Why do you have weapons?" she demanded, Telekinetic boy reached out his hand and the gun floated into the air and towards the air in front of Mycroft and pointed towards him.

Mycroft gulped, "We saw mutants...we were wary."

Sherlock paused and glanced over when he saw the gun move but he knew what would be best for them so continued to slide towards the door, when the other girl in the group – she was hovering above them – must have heard him and spun around. Sherlock didn't waste time pressing the button on the sonic and pointing it to the door. It immediately slid open to revel a small dark room with a man chained to the wall, naked with a shield on his back and cuts across his body.

He looked up at the sudden light and as soon as when he saw the twins, horror crossed over his features.

Mycroft had been dropped to the floor and the girl became visible against desperately trying to close the door.

Sherlock proceeded to grab her by the neck and throw her across the room. Mycroft then spun around and kneed Telekinetic in the solar plexus before he could react and then punched him in the temple before shooting him in the thigh the other teenagers screamed in anger and fear but Mycroft didn't care he needed Captain America and his brother safe right now.

The boy attempted to pull the gun from Mycroft's hands via telekinesis but Mycroft then trod on the boy's thigh, he cried out in pain but Mycroft punched him on the temple again and he fell unconscious, Mycroft then turned to point the gun at the flying girl, retile boy and invisible girl, she was now bleeding from a cut on her forehead and unconscious on the floor. Reptile boy had pulled her into his lap.

Mycroft looked over at the three terrified teenagers, the flying girl attempted to move closer to telekinetic boy but Mycroft stopped her with his movements.

"Why are you doing this?" The flying girl asked.

"Because we're here to save our friend."

Sherlock glanced over before entering the room, wary of the door closing behind him and begun to use the sonic to undo the chains around Steve.

"What...on Earth...are you two...doing?" Steve demanded breathlessly.

"Saving yo ass." Sherlock answered grinning.

"You and you." Mycroft spoke to the two conscious mutants, "What's the plan? Where are the other mutants?" when they didn't answer Mycroft let off a warning shot and they both screamed. "Answer the fucking question!"

"W-we don't know." Flying girl answered. "We were never t-told. We were meant to go to sa-San Francisco b-but Lord Loki w-was angry when he c-caught us outside and told us to g-guard the p-prisoner."

Mycroft sighed, she was telling the truth, he could see it in her eyes. They were only kids pulled into the wrong crowd. He could see how scared they were, trying to act tough but really didn't know what else to do.

A moment later Sherlock and Steve limped out of the room. Steve had his shield on his back but nothing else.

"Where are his clothes?" Mycroft demanded of the mutants.

"Un-under the bed I th-think." The girl answered again.

"Get 'em." Mycroft ordered not wanting any of his own to go back into the room. She nodded slowly walking into the room and bent down the get the clothes.

She threw them to Steve who caught them with a nod and began to get dressed not particularly caring about being naked in front of these people right now. He was slightly in shock at his rescue, he had almost given up hope that he would be rescued, thinking that everyone else would think him dead.

As Mycroft watched the girl walk back to reptile boy he didn't notice telekinesis waking up.

He didn't see him pull a knife from his sheath and he didn't see him throw it.

What Mycroft did see was a dagger soar through the air. It was aiming right at him - kept on course by the telekinetic mutant controlling it.

He couldn't move, he couldn't scream. He could only die.

He heard, some place to his right - Sherlock, screaming at him to move - to get out of the way! But he couldn't. The knife was sealing his fate.

But then - then, it_ didn't_.

There was a blur – something big and dark and colourful - something-

_Sherlock_!

There was a dull thud as Sherlock came into contact with the knife.

_Sherlock Sherlock Sherlock oh God no Sherlock_

Mycroft was running to catch his little brother as he fell. There was a clang in the distance but it didn't matter.

Sherlock fell into Mycrofts arms – they fell to the floor together.

Sherlock whimpered. Mycroft swallowed, and looked down Sherlock's body. There was a knife imbedded in his upper belly, but tilted so it was inside his ribs too.

"No no no no," Mycroft said, "No."

Sherlock sighed, as if to say – _Well, that's a shame_.

Mycroft shifted himself so he could see Sherlock's face. There was a muddy mark across his cheekbone with a slash running through it and a cut above his eyebrow bleeding into his eye.

Sherlock smiled, and looked up at Mycroft. "It's okay." He muttered, "I'm dying." He seemed far too okay with that.  
"No no, we'll get you to a hospital. You'll be alright." Mycroft reassured himself.

"No, brother mine." It was a joke - an inside joke and under different circumstances Mycroft would of laughed. But his brother was dying - not really the ideal time for a joke around. "Just remember this isn't your fault, okay? I jumped in."

Both brothers now had tears running down their face. "No, if I had moved -"

"No." Sherlock spoke with a surprising amount of force for a dying man. "This is my fault. Please don't blame yourself."

"But it is."

"Mycroft, be quiet." He obeyed. Sherlock's voice was slowly fading now. "Listen, as cliché as it is, live a good life, okay? Please, do that for me. If something makes you unhappy, get rid of it." Mycroft nodded silently. "Remember that your covers are too thick for summer? You always forget. After this is over, go buy some, some new ones. Or steal mine." He laughed. "I won't need them anymore, will I?"

"No, don't say that. You'll be fine."

Sherlock shook his head, sadly. "I love you, okay? Don't forget it. Tell Evie that it wasn't her fault. Tell Irene that she was great." Sherlock's eyes were drooping now, the life slowly fading – but then there was one last grin. Mycroft would never forget that grin – the sad, fading smile of a man who was just _letting go_.

"And you know what? So was I."

Mycroft smiled at the reference - but then Sherlock's eyes fluttered closed.

There was no sound. There were no feelings.

Just... emptiness. Void. His brother was gone, his_ brother_, who he couldn't remember life with out – his other half, his partner in crime, his goddamn _twin_ - was lying lifeless in his arms.


	32. Operation Liquefy

Irene ran into the tower and looked around hoping for a sign of Evie.

"She's currently running down the stairs. I've blocked off her at level 50." JARVIS said - even _he _sounded worried.

"Thanks." Irene stated taking off down the stairs having no plan at all, furiously trying to think when suddenly a shot rang out. Irene flinched and ducked behind the railing, "Evie!" Irene yelled out, "Stop!" when nothing else happened Irene stood up slowly and looked down through the railing until she caught sight of Evie stood by a large steel door blocking her from going any further.

"What do you want?" Evie demanded, Irene glanced at the gun still in Evie's hand but now lowered.

"I want you to stop."

"I can't Irene, don't you understand that?" Evie sounded desperate, one hand rested on her slightly swollen stomach, "I _can't_." Irene took a slow hesitate step towards her but then Evie lifted the gun pointing at Irene again. "Don't move."

"Evie, you sound hysterical."

"I'm not. Evie shook her head, "I know what I'm doing."

"Do you?"

Evie stopped and slowly lowered the gun and stepped closer to Irene, "You're just jealous. Jealous that _I_ got him. You liked Regalis since the moment you saw him didn't you?"

Irene's eyes widened - where the hell had that come from? "What? No I-"

"Yes. That's it. You've always been jealous of me. Of Jake, Steve and now Loki. Of my entire life, my powers," Evie reached towards Irene and she stepped backwards, "My friendships with the Avengers and now, the power I'll get from this. You want the power! I was going to let you join me but now, now you've tried to stop me," Evie stepped closer and Irene stepped further away, she was shaking at the look in Evie's eyes. She was manic, willing to do anything right now and then she grinned. "_Tolle illum ad me_." She murmured one hand holding her right wrist before she disappeared.

Irene cursed, "JARVIS?"

"Evie has left the building."

Irene cursed again.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Mycroft slowly glanced up to see three of the mutants were staring in horror, Steve stood by Telekinesis who had blood running down his face and Steve had blood on his fist and on the shield.

Mycroft reached down and picked up the gun from where it had dropped on the floor, he looked horribly vacant, and the thought crashed into Steve before he could stop it - he looked like there was no more hope. For this battle, for Evie, for himself.

There was no conscious thought shown on his face as he walked towards the boy who had killed his brother and pointed the gun at his temple, his hand steady. He looked at the boy, and his eyes were dead.

Steve swallowed loudly watching this scene unfold, thinking whether or not he should try to stop him. But Steve knew, had that been him, had that been anyone he loves more than anyone else in the world, he wouldn't let _anyone_ stop him and he wouldn't _want_ anyone to stop him.

But Mycroft wasn't him. Mycroft has never killed before. Mycroft _will_ regret it.

Reaching a decision Steve gently reached out and laid his hand on Mycroft shoulder. "Mycroft." He spoke softly, and Steve was reminded of how one would speak to a spooked animal.

Mycroft stared down at the boy his hands shaking, the boy's eyes were closed, blood steeped out of a cut in his head - he was just a _kid_. By the looks of it, barely seventeen. A kid pulled into this by the wrong crowd; Mycroft forced himself to look away from the boy and at the other three teenagers. They had huddled together in a corner. They were scared. _Terrified_.

But this boy just killed Sherlock.

Without hesitation.

He killed his brother.

His _twin_.

"Mycroft," Steve repeated squeezing his shoulder softly.

Mycroft looked up at him, tears were streaming down from his bloodshot eyes but he didn't care, his entire body was shaking, the previous calm and steady hand gone as Mycroft's resolve crumbled. "Steve-" Mycroft whispered, "_Please_."  
Steve nodded, understanding. "It's _okay_ Mycroft," he used his other hand to slowly reach down and grip hold of the gun by the barrel, carefully pulling it from Mycrofts hands and switched the safety on.

Mycroft dropped to his knees the moment the gun left his hands and he crawled towards his brother, pulling Sherlock's head onto his lap.

Steve gripped the telekinesis boy and pulled him into the prison room before turning to the other mutants, "Get in there. Now." He ordered. Reptile boy picked up the invisible girl and took her with him as they went into the prison room. Steve closed the door and turned back to Mycroft who had managed to stand up and pulled Sherlock into his arms holding him close to his chest.

"Do you know the way out?"

Mycroft nodded, "We have a jet but it's a long walk away from here." his voice was rough and quiet.

Steve nodded, "Let's go then."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Avengers?" Steve's voice suddenly came through the comm system and Tony grinned widely. "It's Steve."

"Captain!" Tony announced happily, "Great to hear your voice! How are you feeling?"

"Absolutely spiffing." Steve answered felling the exact opposite and allowed sarcasm to show through his voice." Steve answered, Tony could hear the sarcasm dripping in his voice and chuckled, he couldn't believe the relief that shot through him knowing Steve is alive and well enough to talk.

"_Perfect_." Tony answered. "Mycroft and Sherlock?" when Steve didn't answer the relief was immediately replaced with worry and panic. "Steve?" Tony more or less yelled. "Mycroft and Sherlock?"

"Sherlock didn't- he didn't-" Steve trailed off unsure how to answer.

Tony froze, _Sherlock_? He had not expected that, even knowing how dangerous it was for them, part of him just expected it's be easy, they'd all be safe. He wasn't sure about Steve but hadn't let himself think about that. But Sherlock? Sherlock had been his friend, a good friend and a great man. But Tony immediately forgot his own grief when Irene's quiet voice came through.

"Tell me you're joking Steve?"

"I'm sorry, Irene."

Tony was about to answer when suddenly he couldn't move. Everything was frozen. Inside he the suit he could feel his arm pushing against the side of the suit but it wouldn't budge. He felt as if he was pushing against a solid wall.  
He tried to move his head, lift his face plate, activate the thrusters but nothing would work.

His entire suit was frozen, "What the hell?" he muttered, "JARVIS?"

"It appears you can't move, sir."

"Yeah, no shit. Any suggestions to why?"

"Magneto." JARVIS answered, and Tony could hear the fear and worry in his electronic voice.

"Pleasure to see you again, Mr Stark." Another voice spoke above JARVIS and it sent shivers down Tony's spine, he felt his entire body being spun around to see Magneto hovering above him wearing the purple helmet and a red/purple cape flowing out from behind him as he stepped onto the roof.

Tony swallowed, "Electromagnet, nice to see you again. Been a while. Might I say, your hair looks fabulous today."

"Your arc reactor is _incredible_." Magneto murmured, staring at the middle of Tony's chest plate where the arc reactor resides, completely ignoring Tony's greeting.

"Thank you." Tony muttered as his faceplate was pulled off and thrown carelessly to the floor, "Careful with that, this is my favourite suit."

"The alloy you used, titanium-gold alloy, am I correct?"

Tony nodded, "Clever trick. But there's one this I don't get. What do_ you _get in all of this? What's Loki promised you?"

Magneto stared at Tony, considering, "He's promised me more power." he admitted eventually.

"Since when did the great Magneto work with someone else?"

Magneto seemed irritated at the question. "Since I realised that _when_ we win, I need someone with his mind. His _ambition_. A _king_." Magneto's eye's twinkled as he said that. "You can join us. With a mind like yours...there's so much we could do."

Tony laughed, "You think I'd join you? Join _Loki_?! I'd rather _die_."

"_That_, my boy, canbe arranged." Magneto moved his hand into a fist and squeezed.

Tony felt the entire suit collapsing in on him. His breathing was forcibly swallowed as his body was pushed in on itself. "JARVIS! Get me out of here!" he managed to get out through the pain.

"There is the emergency eject but you'll be thrown off the roof."

"_Do it_!" Tony demanded, his voice strained. JARVIS didn't wait for another confirmation and instead Tony felt the suit explode around him, forcing him up into the air and then he was falling. Falling fast.

"JARVIS!" Tony yelled as he fell. "Deploy 43!"

"Doing so now, sir." JARVIS answered, calmer than Tony felt his AI should be as he fell to his possible death.

Tony forced himself to turn around so that he was falling face forward and stretch out when he heard something speeding towards him and then he was enclosed in a suit. He saw the ground getting closer and closer and he was reminded of the last time they faced Loki and this exact same thing happened, before finally his faceplate came over his face and the suit was activated.

Tony turned the thrusters on and stopped mid-air before shooting back into the air vaguely wondering how far Magneto's powers can reach.

"Shit. Get to high ground! I repeat! Get to high ground!" Clint yelled through the comm, and that was when he saw it.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

He held the gun at the ready just in case and shield in his other hand. His entire body ached and hurt, he was shaking from nerve damage but right now there were bigger problems. So he followed Mycroft as they ran through corridors.

Mycroft didn't seem to even think about the direction as he ran but Steve trusted him to get them out of here.

They didn't run into anything, mutant or otherwise, and the moment they stepped out of the door leading outside Mycroft looked up at the sky and fell to his knees. Steve put his shield on his back, put the gun on the floor and bent down beside him putting his arms under Sherlock pulling the boy from Mycroft arms.

Mycroft whimpered but Steve just nodded at him, "C'mon. We need to get to New York."

Mycroft took a deep breath and nodded standing back up and allowed Steve to take Sherlock from him and picked up the gun, "This way."

They ran into the forest and didn't stop until they reached the warehouse and saw the fire escape on the side, "It's on the roof. We can't carry..." Mycroft trailed off and Steve nodded.

"I'll climb and bring the jet down." Steve offered, Mycroft nodding and watched Steve place his brother on the ground and jumped up to climb up the fire escape.

When he got into the jet he tried forced his hands to stop shaking as he turned it on and opened the comm as he hovered up into the air and slowly made his way towards Mycroft.

"Avengers?" he spoke, "It's Steve."

"Captain! Great to hear your voice!" Tony answered. "How are you feeling?"

"Absolutely spiffing." Steve answered, feelingthe exact opposite and allowing sarcasm to show through his voice.

"_Perfect_." Tony answered. "Mycroft and Sherlock?" Steve hesitated – how was he supposed to tell them that Sherlock was dead? He knew Irene would hear this and he didn't want this to be the way she finds out, but how else was he going to tell her? It would be unfair to tell everyone else but keep it from her.

"Steve? _Mycroft_ and _Sherlock_?" Tony repeated yelling through the comm, sounding worried at the prolonged silence.

""Sherlock didn't- he didn't-" Steve trailed off, finding himself unable to carry on.

"Tell me you're joking Steve?" Irene joined in, her voice was quiet.

"I'm sorry Irene."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Irene was silent for a moment and then the elevator stopped and she was at the bottom floor but everything felt numb.

Sherlock's-

She couldn't even begin to process the word.

"Irene?" Mycroft's voice came through a moment later. It was quiet, emotionless.

"Mycroft? Is it true?"

"It's true."

And that was enough to bring her back into reality. "Croft you get back here. _You get back here safe_ and we will grieve together but right now we need to beat this thing okay? _Croft_?"

"Thank you, Rene." Mycroft murmured quietly. He sounded like he wasn't there, like he was trying to isolate himself from what was happening, and for that Irene was grateful. As unfair as it sounded, they needed Mycroft in the game and if he was offsetting the grief then it gave them one less thing to think about.

Irene nodded to herself and walked into the lobby of Stark towers, then made her way outside just as a young boy jumped at her. She squealed and threw him off and then remembered that she didn't have any tranquilisers. There was a moment of struggle as the boy kicked and scratched but she held his wrists at his sides, then gathered them into her hands so he was unable to do anything but kick. Holding him out at a distance, she took the struggling child to the guards who immediately tranquilised the boy and thanked her.

Irene nodded at them and turned to run into battle and hope to see Evie and stop her before anyone else she loves gets hurt.

"Shit. Get to high ground! I repeat! Get to high ground!" Clint yelled into the comm.

That was when she saw it.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_**Hulk saw puny God. Hulk angry. Hulk want to stop him. Hulk smash.  
**_

_**Hulk saw Man of Iron take away puny God and drop him.  
**_

_**Hulk follow.  
**_

_**Hulk smash.  
**_

_**Annoying people attack. Easy to flick. He flicked them as they climbed on him.  
**_

_**He watched them fly away and the punched Puny God. Puny God flies.  
**_

_**Hulk go to follow when something tickled his back. He turned to push it off and when he turned back Puny God had gone.  
**_

_**Red was there. She looked worry. He like red. "Hulk! Could use a lift?"  
**_

_**Hulk grinned and watched her run towards him. He held out his arms at **__**the ready and when she jumped on them he shot her upwards and watched her grab the side of a building.**_

_**Hulk then turned around and smash.**_

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Travel via Magical bracelets, Evie quickly found, isn't very fun.

She managed not to throw up, which was saying a lot since being pregnant she had been sick more times than she can count. Not even Loki's power can stop that – not that she wanted him to either. It wasn't worth the risk.

When she landed she found herself in the middle of West 9th Street, a few miles from the Stark Tower and she looked around knowing that Loki should be within a few meters due to using the bracelets. Then the wall beside her exploded and Evie dived to the floor protecting herself from the debris. As she stood up she put one hand on her only slightly swollen belly hoping that the baby is okay and turned to see what had exploded through the wall to see Loki lying on the floor breathing heavily.

Loki groaned, panting and then sat up catching her eye. He smirked despite being in obvious pain. "I do not suggest getting in a fight with the beast." Evie chuckled and looked around, not being able to see the Hulk.

So far everything looked perfect, the brotherhood were winning, the soldiers were being pushed back, she couldn't see any of the Avengers and they were surrounded. The Avengers were split up, Steve was trapped, Thor she wasn't sure where he was, and they had mutants, mutants that are harder to stop and harder to kill.

With that thought she grinned down at Loki. "Time for Operation Liquefy?" she asked.

Loki rolled his eyes as he gracefully stood up. "I do not understand why you insist on having a name for it. But yes. It is time."

Evie nodded and glanced around walking to the nearest skyscraper. Loki at her side she pressed her hand against the wall concentrating hard on it. Slowly from beneath her hand it begun to transform.

Clint saw Natasha surrounded by doppelgangers and he sent an arrow at the original doppelganger – at least he hoped it was the right one, proven correct when the others disappeared and the original fell to the floor – Natasha muttered a thanks before lunging towards Quicksilver unsurprised when he darted away.

That was when he saw it.

A skyscraper – one of the new ones built after the original battle – was _changing_. It took him a second – but then she saw Evie at the base, her hand on it and rippling outwards from her hand the concrete and glass and _everything _of the building was changing.

_Evie was changing a building into water._

"Shit. Get to high ground! I repeat! Get to high ground!" Clint yelled into the comm.

"_Der'mo_." Natasha swore when she saw it and then looked around before she saw Hulk, she knew he shouldn't be here, he could hurt innocent people – children – but right now there wasn't time.

"Hulk! Could do with a lift?"

Hulk spun around, grinned at her and held out his arms. Natasha grinned and began to run towards him and used him to throw her into the air and grip the side of a building to leverage herself up.

Irene turned back running into Stark tower, "JARVIS! Get me high!"

"Sorry?" the AI sounded concerned for her sanity.

"_Elevator_! Full speed! High as we can go!" Irene yelled as she ran into the elevator.

Tony glanced around to see if he could help and saw Hulk but he knew there was nothing he could do for the people down there, he just could hope that maybe this will slow down the Brotherhood. With that thought he shot down towards Evie and Loki but before he can reach her the tower began to wobble and fall and then stopped. From the top of the skyscraper something shot towards it and it began to change again.

Tony laughed softly as he finally noticed the jet above them and people jumping from it. The Sky turned dark and he heard Clint's laughter in his ear, "Help has arrived."

Tony watched as one of them slid from the jet creating an ice path in front of himself, one hand concentrating on creating the slide going towards and around the tower, the other hand was pointed to the tower slowly turning it to ice. A moment later another girl dropped from the jet into the ice building, straight through the ice, to save the people that had been trapped in the ice after falling through the water.

The sky turned dark and a woman with white hair floated down from the jet, arms out stretched and a bolt of lightning shot down in front of quicksilver stopping him long enough for Natasha to grab him and Clint to send an arrow into his knee successfully stopping him for a while.

As Tony reached Evie and Loki so did another jet.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Steve pushed the jet to go as fast as they could, Mycroft sat in the back after strapping Sherlock's body into ensure he didn't fall off the seat as they flew towards New York. They arrived in time to see a larger jet with a large X on the side; it was hovering a few miles from an ice tower.

"Help has arrived!" He heard Clint laughing gleefully through the comm system.

Steve watched Iron Man shooting towards the bottom of the ice skyscraper where he finally noticed Evie and Loki.

Steve didn't hesitate to take the jet down, landing it heavily and quickly before jumping up even before it had fully stopped running to the doors with his shield at the ready. Mycroft nodded at him and Steve ran out running towards Evie.

"Evie! Stop this madness!" he yelled as he neared her.

Evie laughed humourlessly ignoring the destruction going on around them as the X-men begun to fight against the Brotherhood, Wolverine fighting against Sabertooth, Kitty was helping survivors inside the ice building, a girl in a yellow jacket throwing what looked like fireballs at a brotherhood that was throwing rocks from their arms into buildings.

All helping the Avengers get the upper-hand once more. "You think that you coming to tell me to stop will magically make me just _stop_?"

"No, but this might." Mycroft's voice was soft but loud enough to be heard above the sounds of the battle around them. Steve stepped to the side to allow Mycroft to be in view, when Evie looked over she gasped.

Mycroft was walking out of the jet carrying Sherlock's body in his arms.

"Sherlock- oh my God, _Sherlock_..." Evie whispered but then Loki placed his hand on her shoulder and every emotion that Evie was showing was hidden immediately, she stiffened up and glared at them but before anyone could speak Irene joined them, she had ran all the way from Stark towers, running through the streets until finally she made it to the street they were on, she only had eyes for Evie.


	33. Finally!

Thor saw the jets coming towards him and he adjusted his grip on the Mjölnir and went straight though the first one and landed on the one directly behind it, watching with satisfaction as it went dropping out of the sky, Thor counted five different people ejecting themselves from it.

He turned his attention to the jet he had landed on the nose of, the pilot was twisting and turning trying to push him off but he had a strong grip in it, leaving a hand shaped dent in the metal and punched through the glass windshield with the other hand, grabbing the pilot and pushed him off the pilot seat as two other men ran into the cockpit, one began shooting him with bullets that easily rebounded off his skin and the breathed fire at him which he ducked hitting the fire with the hammer and went back towards guy who ducked it.

Thor then swung the hammer at the control panel which exploded in sparks and electricity. Thor then held the Mjölnir above him and flew upwards smashing through the jet and turned. He went through another two jets before most had descended and he knew he had to get back to New York.

"Avengers?" Thor heard Steve's voice come through the comm, echoing over the wind. "It's Steve."

Thor found himself grinning widely knowing that Steve has made it and tuned out most of the conversation but when he heard about Sherlock, Thor knew he had to get to New York.

As he turned and flew to New York he saw other cities with Mutants down below but there were less, they were dealing, he vaguely noticed someone he recognised as 'The Thing' from the Fantastic Four team that he had met months ago at one of Tony's parties in Columbia, Ohio.

He arrived in New York in time to see a building made of ice that he swore wasn't there before and saw Irene charging at Evie.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Irene felt burning anger soar through her and as soon as JARVIS announced to her that it was safe she barrelled out of Stark towers and ran as fast as she could towards the glistening building made of ice.

Until she saw them, Tony, Steve, Mycroft and Sherlock's body - and then closer to the building stood both Evie and Loki is Asgardian outfits.

Irene only had eyes for Evie.

Irene didn't stop until she barrelled into Evie, knocking her to the ground and hopefully winding her too.

Loki didn't get a chance to help as Iron Man shot a blaster at him and Loki fell to the floor, as he jumped to his feet Captain America threw the shield and Loki only just managed to block it with his staff, it clattered to the side and Steve jumped up sending a drop kick at Loki. Loki grabbed his leg and tugged it toward him so that the Captain fell awkwardly. He then kicked Steve in the face, breaking his nose, before turning to face Tony who wasn't moving to Loki's surprise.

When he glanced up he saw Magneto floating a few metres above them, "What took you so long?" He hissed.

Magneto rose an eyebrow at him, "Doing what I must." He turned back to Tony and flicked his hand causing Tony to float upwards and towards Magneto, "Clever trick you had back there but don't expect to be able to fool me twice."

"Oh don't worry, fool you once shame on you, fool you twice? The _same_ way? Shame on me for having no imagination." Tony managed to answer; Magneto could almost hear the smirk through the suit.

Magneto chuckled humourlessly and lifted his other hand. "Now, my boy, I hope you don't mind that I take _this_." He twisted his wrist around and Tony screamed in pain, fire roared through his chest as he felt the Arc Reactor turning inside his chest and then slowly pulling out, the suit ripped apart leaving a gap for the arc reactor when suddenly it stopped and he dropped to the floor.

Tony groaned and used on hand to push the arc reactor back into his body and then open his eyes to see that Mycroft had launched himself at Magneto and was hanging onto his legs pulling the old man down.

Magneto slowly dropped to the floor, Mycroft's feet touched the floor first and he punched Magneto hard and Magneto lifted a hand to defend himself from Mycroft's fists.

Thor landed beside them and ran straight to Tony bending down beside him as Tony sat up slowly; there was a gaping hole in the middle of his suit the metal broken and sharp. "Man of Iron, are you alright?"

Tony looked at Thor and then at his chest, "Yeah. Seriously, this guy goes through my suits faster than me." Tony muttered when he noticed it and it opened up allowing Tony out of the suit, "JARVIS send me 47."

"Sending now."

Thor chuckled and then turned to watch as a mutant appeared beside Mycroft and Magneto and grabbed Mycroft throwing him down the street before turning to help Magneto stand. Magneto sneered at him pushed the arm away standing up himself.

Thor and Tony glanced at each other and nodded, Tony ran towards where Mycroft was thrown whilst Thor swung the Mjölnir around before throwing it at Magneto, it snipped the other guy on the arm pushing him to the floor and continued on the path to Magneto but he held up one hand stopping the hammer millimetres from his face and turned to face Thor.

"This metal is more incredible than his arc reactor. It is not of earth."

Thor held out his hand Mjölnir came flying back into his hand despite Magneto's attempts at stopping it. "That makes it harder for you to control." Thor murmured thoughtfully and swung the Mjölnir around before thrusting it in the air and himself with it and shot back down at Magneto the hammer in front of him, Magneto held up a hand hoping to stop Thor by the hammer but it didn't work forcing Magneto to dive out of the way.

When he started to stand he found himself unable to, glancing down at himself he saw a strange sticky looking substance across his torso, arms and legs holding him to the ground.

"What on ear-"

Thor watched the strange white substance shot down from the sky and hit Magneto sticking him to the ground, he looked up to see a red and blue person shaped thing hanging upside down from a street light and waved at him.

Thor grinned at him, "Who be you good sir?" Thor called up.

"Spiderman." Thor heard him both from his own ears and from the comm. "I'm offended you didn't invite me to the party!"

"Spiderman? Seriously, what are you doing here?"

Tony spoke as he flew towards them in another suit; there were no obvious differences in the change of suit but this one had slightly upgraded honing devises. Spiderman spun around to face Tony who was hovering behind him, "You want help or not?"

"We're handling this fine, kid!"

"No. You're not."

Tony made a noise of disgruntled acceptance. "Okay, but your suit looks stupid."

"Nice to see you too! I'll keep the dude in the cape occupied. You sort out brother-yours." Spiderman directed at Thor a before sending another web at a mutant that had turned up and seemed to be able to levitate items with his hands.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Steve watched as Magneto forced Tony into the air and grabbed the shield to throw it and hopefully distract Magneto long enough for Tony to get to safety, but before he could he was pushed to the side as something heavy and burning as it hit him in the chest pushing him backwards, he only just managed to keep hold of his shield as his back hit the ground.

He kicked his legs and jumped onto his feet whilst throwing his shield at Loki, as it hit Loki in the chest Steve lunged forward kicking at Loki's stomach causing Loki to stumble forward giving Steve the time to grab his shield.

Loki regained his balance and swung his staff at Steve, who had blood flowing from his nose and onto his suit, not bothering to try and fix it at this point; he blocked it with the shield and swung his legs out behind Loki's knees causing him to fall for the floor catching himself with one hand and standing back up only to get fist in the face. Loki grabbed Steve's arm and spun it around forcing Steve to his knees as he tried to pull his arm free and Loki grinned.

"She loves me Captain. Let her go."

Steve growled, "I will never let her go."

Before Loki could reply Thor launched himself at Loki, "Brother! Stop this madness now!"

"Stop trying brother." Loki told Thor as he ducked as Thor swung the Mjölnir. "This is what needs to happen."

"You are losing my brother. Please, if you do not stop these we have to stop you."

Loki chuckled darkly, "Are you threatening to kill me _brother_?"

Thor nodded, "I will do what I have to, to protect the Earth."

Loki froze. Hearing those words, this planet, full of _apes_ is more important than him to his brother?

Loki was suddenly reminded of a night, long, long ago. It was the last time he and Thor were truly brothers when they were quite young, Loki had a nightmare about the Frost Giants killing both him and Thor – how ironic that is now – and he had gone to Thor's bedroom to check his brother is okay (even though he would, logically, be okay - he'd needed to check anyways) and accidently woke him up. Thor had been angry until Loki explained his nightmare and then Thor just invited him to share him bed and promised that he'd never let the Frost Giants touch him and one day would destroy them all.

Neither brother had known at that point that it would be destroying his brother too.

For the first time in a long time Thor saw hope in Loki's eyes but it was only there for Thor to see the hope die.

Before Thor could react Loki sent a strong blaster at him pushing him into and through the nearest building and when Thor managed to stand up Loki was gone.

Steve ran toward him picking up the Mjölnir from the side of the road where it had fallen and handing it to Thor as he reached him, "Are you alright?"

Thor cocked his head, "How did you-?"

"What?" Steve frowned in confusion at Thor's amazement.

"The Mjölnir, you picked it up."

Steve blinked; he hadn't even thought about it, if it had been Clints bow he would have done the same thing. He looked at his hands in shock, "I don't know."

Thor grinned and placed his heavy hand on Steve shoulder, "You are worthy. Now come, we must stop them."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Natasha sent a backwards kick at someone behind her and grimaced as she felt her foot sink into something that felt slimy and wet. She pulled it out and turned to see an extremely tall and overweight blonde man grinning, "Hey Sexy." He greeted her with a faint Texas accent.

"Gross." she muttered sending a jump and kick to his head but that didn't seem to faze him so Natasha took a step back just in time for the Hulk to decide to tackle the fat man with a roar and turned to Natasha who still felt a bit of sub-conscience fear of the Rage Monster.

"Hulk Smash!" Hulk declared jumping away from the now unconscious man into what looked like a man throwing fire bolts with his hands followed by a girl shooting sparks from her hands.

"Lee! Ostorozhnyy! Careful!" A man's voices yelled, Natasha's ears tuned into the Russian and glanced over to see a tall built man who looked as if he was physically made of metal, he grabbed 'Lee'.

"Hey, Pete I go- Oh." A fire-bolt shot right into the spot 'Lee' had been standing a moment prior.

Natasha smirked and spun back around only to come face-to-face with a man that was hunched forward and growling at her and drooling. She didn't hesitate to stab him with a knife hidden under her sleeve but as she did that launched himself forward and bit her shoulder. Natasha cried out but pushed him away quickly but as she did that everything went began to blur. She tried to blink it away and step forward but she stumbled into someone, she tensed up ready for a fight. The guy spun around also ready for a fight but when she recognised him as Wolverine, she relaxed just enough to show that she's not going to fight and sensing her trust in him, he did the same and then frowned as she swayed where she stood.

"You alright?"

"Yes." Natasha spat back before fainting. Logan caught her before carrying her off the middle of the road to the nearest empty store but halfway there someone ran towards him.

"Oh My God is she ok?"

Logan glanced up to see a pretty woman with red hair and smelt of warmth and coconut. Pepper he finally remembered. "Duno, she just passed out." Pepper nodded, she had been concentrating on tranquilising the kids and getting them out of the way and trying to avoid the mutants when possible but when she saw someone carrying Natasha she had to check on her friend. "Get back to safety bub," Logan interrupted her thoughts.

Pepper nodded taking mental note of where Logan was taking Natasha so she could find her later.

Logan placed Natasha out-of-sight in a random building, so that if any of the Brotherhood were to come by they wouldn't see her. He then continued on his way towards the ice building where he knew Loki was near.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Evie pushed Irene away and stood up quickly, "Evie!" Irene yelled, "Stop this! Before somebody else that we love dies."

"That was his own fault." Evie yelled, "Sherlock shouldn't have gone, he knew it was dangerous."

"He went to save Steve, _your_ boyfriend."

"Ex. He broke it with me."

Irene rolled her eyes, "Whatever. He went to save his _friend_ and he's dead. He was out friend. Our _best_ friend, we've loved him since 6th Grade. Now stop this before anyone else dies."

"You weren't listening earlier. I _can't_. This _needs_ to happen."

"No. Evie. It doesn't. You _need_ to stop."

"Why? Won't this be better?"

"No. People will die. If you stop now-"

"S.H.I.E.L.D will kill me."

"If you stop now they won't. But if you don't they will."

Evie hesitated, Irene could see the thoughts drafting through Evie's face, various different emotions going across her face. Irene could read her better than anyone and right now wished she couldn't. "No."

"Evie-"

"_No_!" Evie yelled touching a car and immediately turned it to water and then threw the water at Irene. Irene saw it coming towards her and she knew that Evie was planning on drowning her and there was nothing she could do, until she was pushed out of the way, hitting the floor heavily.

She rolled over, wincing as a large bit of rock stuck into her back, to see Steve was trapped in a large ball off water. He tried to swim upwards but the water moved with him giving him no escape. Irene looked at Evie, she was staring at the water, at Steve, her eyes narrowed in concentration and one hand outstretched lifting higher every time Steve got near the top.

Irene pushed herself to her feet and ran at Evie grabbing her wrists, Evie stopped and her eyes went from staring at Steve to at Irene and she froze her eyes wide with fear and worry.

A moment later, Irene heard a splash and glanced over to see a large puddle on the floor and Steve lying in it dripping wet and breathing heavily.

After a moment he caught Irene's eye and nodded at her questioning look.

Evie growled at Irene and then Irene felt something strange, her hand was going numb. She pulled it from Evie's arm and looked at it; it was dripping wet and wrinkly as if she had just come out of a long bath and red-raw. It felt like the skin had been ripped off, then Irene realised that was what had happened.

Evie had turned the first few layers of skin into water. She looked back up at Evie and tried to step backwards but tripped over some debris as Evie began walking towards her again.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Loki turned from Thor and ran to find Evie, as he ran he thought about her. She was a human that lived on this planet but she's not like the rest. She's so _different_. He sees some humans and they truly are apes, violent stupid _apes_. That was proven on the night he was beaten up at the bar.

But then there's Evie that even after being angry at him after the fight at the bar, she still forces it upon herself to help him.

And now, _now_. She's the mother of his child. A son or daughter - he didn't care - which but he vows to protect and love his child in a way Odin never loved him.  
But Loki knew he had to get to Evie. What if she takes a risk and they lose their child? He knew his child would be strong but he had never heard of a Frost Giant and human having a child before so he couldn't be certain of how strong, or even how well the pregnancy will go.

He cannot risk that. He loves this child and Evie too much for that to happen.  
He briefly wondered how this happened? He had become less concentrated on winning this war, taking over New York, and now all he could think about was Evie and their child. He didn't care about this fight as much anymore, he wants to take his revenge on the Avengers but since Evie had come to him with her pregnancy that is all he can think of.

So he ran.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Irene jumped as someone appeared at her side and bent down beside her and put a hand on her back; Irene glanced over to see a dripping wet Steve so she allowed him to help her stand. Irene cried as she put pressure on the left wrist, Steve stopped her and looked at it, "It's broken." He stated almost un-necessarily as Irene saw it bruised and swollen, wondering when that had happened?

"Did she-"

Irene shook her head before Steve could finish that sentence and stood up keeping her wrist out of view looking Evie dead in the eye as her ex-best friend came towards her. Irene didn't move, she stood her ground motioning for Steve to stand down. To wait.

Evie reached her and took hold of Irene's left upper arm.

"Evie, I know what you're about to do and you'll regret this." Irene saw Iron Man flying above them and she shook her head telling him to wait.

Evie swallowed, her hand trembling, "Why don't you move then? Fight me?"

"Because that'll only make it worse." Irene said as she lifted her right hand to place over Evie's hand on her arm. "Do it." Irene whispered.

Evie froze, neither woman moved until another voice joined them, "Evie! What are you waiting for?"

Irene turned her head around to see Loki; he was standing on the opposite side of the road to Steve. Irene turned back to Evie who just shook her head at Loki, "I- I-"

"Evie, when you rule with me you won't have to talk to these people, they will be nothing by the dirt under your feet. Make them the _water_ under your feet."

Evie forced her eyes off Loki and at Irene looking her dead in the eye, "I'm sorry 'Rene."

Irene froze, closed her eyes and waited for the pain that never came; instead the hand gripping her arm suddenly became loose, and slipping from under her hand.

Irene opened her eyes only to see Evie's close and fall to the floor with a heavy thud. She began to kneel down beside her to check if Evie's ok when she was shoved out of the way. She stepped back almost willingly, part of her expecting to see Steve checking on Evie but instead she saw Loki, he was _kneeling_ beside Evie. He had made himself vulnerable, _defenceless_. All for one girl. One _human_ girl. It was written on his face that he was panicking. He placed and hand quickly onto her belly, then one onto her back to try and push her up.

It was at that moment Irene realised that Loki actually _does_ love Evie.

Nobody else seemed to notice or care about the sentiment as Tony took his chance, he shot a tranquiliser at Loki.

Loki stood up, gently placing Evie back onto the ground, reaching back to pull the needle out of his neck and turn to glare at Tony, he shot an energy blast at him before swaying again and turned to face Evie. He bent down pulling her into his arms in a bride's lift but when he turned around again. He found himself face to face with Irene, Mycroft, Steve, Iron Man, Wolverine and Thor all holding various weapons.

"The brotherhood have scarpered. You've lost bub." Wolverine growled pointing his claws at Loki's neck.

Clint dropped down beside them pointing an arrow at Loki's eye, "Cap? This time? _Please_?" Steve seriously considered saying yes but suddenly S.H.I.E.L.D agents were surrounding them and grabbed Loki and Evie before they could argue.

Evie was ripped from Loki's arms, and Steve saw, for a moment, that he was about to cry out, to stop them from taking her – but he didn't. Instead, he swayed on the spot before one of the S.H.I.E.L.D agents shoved his wrists into handcuffs, making him overbalance and collapse to the floor.

Loki looked down at the dusty asphalt and realised -

He had been defeated.


	34. Awakening

**AN: Sorry this is late! Basically, Till-the-wheels-fall-off is currently at Catherss' house so I (Catherss) have been busy showing TTWFT around cool places. We're sorry for the delay!**

Most of the X-men disappeared before S.H.I.E.L.D could grab them, running to regroup and heal those who S.H.I.E.L.D had wounded. Storm came to S.H.I.E.L.D a few days later to give them a report before leaving again without much of a word to those she had assisted in battle or those who had assisted her.

All of the Avengers went straight to one of the smaller, lesser known bases S.H.I.E.L.D owned on the edge of New York to be checked and treated for injuries.

Most of them had multiple injuries but would be physically fine after some rest and healing from the nurses and one of the X-Men mutants who had the ability to heal in short bursts (he had quickly sorted out the maimed ally mutants and had offered his services to S.H.I.E.L.D). Natasha, however, was in a coma, apparently infected with an unknown disease from the bite she had received along with rabies. The Doctors, Tony and Bruce were working on curing her immediately (the mutant boy said that he couldn't help comatose patients – it was something to do with him having to sort of latch onto their brain to expel healing.)

After the adrenaline had worn off neither Irene nor Mycroft had spoken since they had arrived at S.H.I.E.L.D. They instead sat together, unconsciously leaving space between them, not speaking and staring at the wall blankly. Nobody really had the heart to stop them – and those who had tried to interact with them had only been rewarded short and snappy answers.

Both Evie and Loki were placed in separate secure rooms, Evie unconscious and Loki sat alone in his cell, sitting with his feet on the bench, head in his hands and sitting in an upright foetal position. He was unmoving and silent to anyone that tried to question him or even offer him food (as much as Tony had protested, Fury demanded the prisoner at least be offered food. You couldn't interrogate a dead man).

Through the first night Bruce and Tony worked all night trying to help Natasha. Clint stayed at her side, snatching small bouts of rest before being on watch again for either signs of recovery from Natasha or some unknown enemy. Steve stayed at Evie side despite the Doctor's arguments and the others did what they could to help and heal.

The next morning Tony and Bruce gleefully entered Evie's cell/recovery room announcing to Steve that Natasha will be alright but she's in a temporary coma as her body burnt off the infection.

"Great." Steve smiled and Tony rose an eyebrow, "Sorry, I really am glad," Steve rubbed at his eyes, "I'm just so _tired _at the moment. Well done. Though - did you work all night?"

The two geniuses' nodded (surprisingly in unison), "But it seems we got more sleep than you seemed to have." Bruce murmured.

Steve shrugged, "What if she wakes up? I need her to see I'm here for her."

"She's still daemonised." Tony reminded him softly, "For another month at least. Don't expect her to be exactly...happy about being here."

"I know but that doesn't change that I need to be here."

Before anyone could comment a Doctor entered the room and greeted them all, "Well it's safe to say Evie is in full health. Obviously our devices cannot detect the daemon but I assume she's not un-daemonised." The Doctor hesitated glancing around at each of them, "I'm unaware of how much you know about this but Evie is pregnant, 2 months and 2 weeks gone. Despite it all the foetus is healthy." The Doctor added the last part with a nervous smile unsure how they were going to take this new information – especially since he didn't know who knew and if it was entirely appropriate to tell all of them at once.

Bruce and Tony glanced at Steve, as shocked as they were about this they knew Steve would be the most affected by this.

Steve froze, not moving for a few moments, staring at the Doctor not sure how to react. He had his suspicions that something had changed, the way Loki was careful with Evie. But hearing it confirmed. Like _this_? He didn't know how to act.

So instead he masked his shock and pain and stood up turning on his heel to walking straight out of the room, past Thor and Darcy who had come to visit and away from the medical bay. He didn't know where he was going, just somewhere. Away from Evie and her child.

_Loki's_ child.

He eventually made it into the gym, it was completely empty due to all agents working in different states stopping the brotherhood and cleaning up New York.

Taking a deep breath he went to the punching bags and started working on it, not even bothering to change out of the shirt he was in now. Every time he punched the bag his entire arm screamed in pain, each and every nerve on fire. He only lasted a few minutes until the door opened; Steve glanced over to see Bruce walking into the room.

"You know, you've still got nerve damage. I wouldn't suggest irritating your nerves any more than they already are." Bruce commented calmly, coming to a standstill about five metres away from Steve who was still pounding at the bag.

Steve smirked, "It. Helps." He punctuated each word with a punch.

"That must hurt though."

"It. Helps." Steve repeated.

Bruce sighed and nodded, taking the few steps closer to Steve who ignored him, hitting it over and over again until Bruce placed his hand on his shoulder – it felt slightly awkward due to the height differences but after a moment Steve relaxed and leaned into the punching bag, breathing heavily.

"I'm sorry to say this but I have to be certain...I assume it's not yours?"

Steve shook his head, "We- Evie and I... we never had sex." While Steve would normally avoid any conversation like this, Bruce had some air about him that made it about fifty times easier to talk about matters such as these than anyone else. "So, it can't be mine." Bruce sighed heavily, shoulders slumping along with Steve's. "I don't know what to do." Steve admitted quietly, "When we finally get rid of the daemon...is she still going to want to be with me? Do I want to be with her? Bring up someone else's kid?"

"Do you love her?"

"Yes." Steve answered without a seconds hesitation.

"Then you can do it. You can love this kid. Bring him or her up; we'll be there as well. He or she will grow up and be great, he or she will be like you, not like _him_. Okay?"

Steve was surprised at the fierceness in Bruce's tone and found himself nodding, "Okay." Bruce nodded slowly, suddenly calming down and the light green in his eyes faded.

"C'mon. You need your rest and it's not good for your nerves doing this."

Steve sighed but he had to agree with Bruce, "I'm gonna go find a room and take a nap, if she wakes up-"

"I'll call you." Bruce promised.

"Thanks."

As they left the gym they went separate ways but Steve, instead of going up a floor to the impromptu bedrooms that had been set up to accommodate the uninjured Avengers, he needed to talk to someone.

He entered Loki's cell room; it was the same as he had before the room for the Hulk, redone and stronger than before.

Loki was sat on the seat at the other end of the cell leaning against the glass looking more vulnerable than Steve had expected, to see this man, a God and more powerful than anything he knows, his mask was dropped and all Steve could see from worry but as soon as Loki noticed his presence the mask was back. Steve could still see the vulnerable Loki underneath it – it was there, in his eyes.

"Why her?" was all Steve said.

Loki shrugged, "It was not my original plan but she was there. How is she?"

"_No_. You don't get to ask how she is! You did this to her!"

Loki slowly stood up and walked across the cell, standing square against Steve, a few footsteps away from the reinforced glass barrier. "I did not wish to hurt her. _Please_. Is she alive?"

Steve just glared at the man, "I thought I hated you before, last time we fought. But now, I feel sorry for you. You're going to lose her when the daemons gone. Both her and your child."

Loki blinked, he hesitated, Steve saw the look of panic and sadness go across his face but it was gone as quickly as it had come, "Are you going to answer my question or not?"

"She's alive." with that Steve stalked out of the room and went to find a room hoping to attempt to sleep for an hour or so, though the attempt would almost certainly be futile.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Irene woke up in the morning to find herself alone. Mycroft had wandered off for coffee or a snack (she'd noticed he'd never eaten anything larger than two rounds of toast in one go since Sherlock had died). She stood up slowly her entire body aching from the fight, her broken wrist throbbing along with her head and each and every bruise covering her body. "Croft?" She called out wanting to see him, feel his arms around her, that's all she needed right now.

She found him in the kitchen sat by the table holding an apple and staring forwards, his face was completely blank. Empty.

When he saw Irene his eyes flickered before going blank once again. Irene sat down on the chair beside him.

"We need to tell Natalie." Mycroft told her softly. "He text her before we went in."

"I'll take care of that." Irene promised. That was partly a lie - she wasn't sure if she could. She felt like if she tried to do anything more difficult than wondering down to the kitchen she'd just collapse but she knew this will be worse for Mycroft. His twin is dead, his _other half_.

Being a physiatrist she knew she was diagnosing herself, mentally going through the stages of grief, Mycroft is currently in denial, but she wasn't sure about herself. She didn't think she was in denial nor any of them between that an acceptance. In all honesty she felt that she was ignoring it all and being there for Mycroft and worrying about Evie before she worries about her own feelings. Which then could mean she is in denial.

She remembered once in University she was hanging out with Mycroft and Evie whilst Sherlock was on a date, when Mycroft suddenly stood without a word to either of them, quickly explaining that Sherlock had been hurt somehow and they needed to get to the hospital. Turned out Sherlock had fallen down the stairs and broken his leg. Mycroft had never been able to explain how he knew – he just said that he _did._

"Thank you." Mycrofts words brought Irene out of her thoughts and she shrugged.

"I need to be useful I guess."

"Yeah." Mycroft murmured, and Irene wasn't sure if it was an agreement or simply an acknowledgement that she'd said something. She realised she didn't actually care that much either (she'd been finding it hard to care about _anything _outside of Mycrofts welfare and Evie's state of consciousness, or lack thereof).

They both looked up as Darcy walked into the room, when she saw them she stopped and smiled softly, "Hey guys." Mycroft nodded at her and Irene waved. "Look I heard about Sherlock and I just-"

"Don't." Mycroft said and Darcy stopped and nodded.

"Sorry."

Mycroft just shook his head and stood up walking straight past Darcy and out the room. Irene sighed and closed her eyes for a moment before standing up, "Sorry and, uh, thanks." She murmured to Darcy before quickly following Mycroft catching up to him in the hallway.

"I generally don't know what to do at the moment." Mycroft said when Irene had caught up to him, he was staring forward unblinkingly, "After something- something like this we'd go out get drunk and talk about what we did, share stories about whoever we might of lost or just anecdotes... _generally_. We'd laugh or we'd cry together. But now..."

"I know." Irene murmured.

Mycroft stopped walking and Irene took a couple of steps before she realised he stopped and she turned to face him, he was staring at the floor not moving, slowly he lifted his eyes and caught Irene's. His eyes were sparkling with tears and worry, "Irene," he whispered, "I could kill her. I almost killed the man that did this. But I could kill her right now."

Irene swallowed, how was she supposed to react to that? Part of her brain noted that he was seemingly in the anger stage – and that same part wanted her to go into Physc mode and talk to him like a patient but she knew she couldn't, this is her friend, talking about another friend. So instead she just said softly, "It wasn't her fault, all of this."

"She knew exactly where Steve was. She was _there_. But she left Steve to _rot_ leaving _us_ to go save him because she knew we would. She knew somebody would because we're a freaking Ohana or whatever. But she could have got him out! She could have saved him but _no_. We went. _We_ saved him now my _brother_ is _dead_!"

Mycroft froze as he said those words, the first time it was uttered. Confirmed.

Steve walked out of a room at that moment and he froze at Mycrofts yell, "Mycroft." Steve greeted, "I'm sorry. If you hadn't come to save me-"

Mycroft shook his head, "It's not your fault. I don't blame _you_." With that Mycroft walked past Steve and began jogging down the corridor not caring about where he was going. Irene stayed where she was.

"He's right; it's not your fault."

Steve shrugged, "Part of it is."

"Right, so you expect us to have just left you there?" Steve shrugged gain, "No Steve I'd rather die than leave you there and I know you feel the same."

Steve nodded, "Your right but I can't help feeling guilty. Sherlock- Sherlock is- _was_ a great man, I couldn't even begin to imagine how Mycroft feels."

"What happened?" Irene asked, Mycroft hadn't told her the details and she hadn't asked but she wanted to know.

"Sherlock jumped in front of a knife, he saved Mycrofts life."

Irene closed her eyes breathing deeply trying to stay calm and not imagine how guilty Mycroft must feel.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Mycroft knew exactly where he wanted to go and it didn't take him long to get there.

Loki looked up at the entrance and lent forwards raising an eyebrow, "Friend of Evies. Pleasure."

"I want the kiss daemon."

Loki cocked his head, "Why?"

"It stops you from feeling. I need it."

"Not completely. There is no guilt. It removes you're inhibitions."

"Like red Kryptonite? Good enough for me."

Loki cocked his head at the reference and then smirked, "Ah, your brother died did he not?" Mycroft purposely didn't blink, keeping hold of Loki's eye contact, showing him how serious he is. "Well I'm afraid the only way to get one is for me to kiss you. Something I'm not willing to do." He smirked and turned away from Mycroft, probably silently trying to convay how the conversation was over.

"Please. I'll do anything."

"You'll aid in my and Evie's escape?" He asked, turning again slightly. Mycroft hesitated before sighing and shaking his head, there were other ways he can stop the pain, stop feeling. Risking millions of other deaths isn't worth it. "Didn't think so." Loki sat back and closed his eyes after a few minutes he heard Mycroft leave.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Clint had barely left Natasha's side waiting nervously for Tony and Bruce to find a way to help her, when they came into the room at 6am Clint stood up nervously, Tony just grinned at him as Bruce injected a clear liquid into her inner elbow and then looked at the machines beeping around her. Clint had no idea what any of it other than the heart monitor meant but he could see that they had changed from a moment ago.

"Perfect, it's already healing her." Bruce told Clint cheerfully, after briefly consulting one of the monitors that Clint hadn't even bothered looking at it looked to complicated.

"Will she wake up soon then?"

"Hard to tell. She's in a temporary coma until her bodies healed enough to wake up. I'll come and check on her in a few hours but right now I need sleep. Only wake me if the world is about to end, otherwise you might be seeing more green than you want right now." With that Bruce left the room barely making it to his own before collapsing on the bed falling into the land of sleep quicker than usual.

A few hours later, long after Bruce had come to check on her, Natasha opened her eyes and grinned when she saw Clint fast asleep in the seat beside her bed. She shifted in her bed knowing that it would wake the light sleeper beside her and Clint did as expected, sitting up and his hand reached down to where his bow lay on the floor beside the seat.

"Morning," she murmured, her throat dry and voice rough.

"More like afternoon." Clint corrected as he stood up to pour her a cup of water from the jug beside her bed. Natasha sat up in her bed and took it from him with a nod of thanks.

"What happened then?"

"You were bitten by a wolf like mutant that infect people with a single bite. I was afraid you'd turn into a werewolf."

Natasha rolled her eyes, "Why am I not surprised?" Clint smirked, "And Evie? Loki? Avengers?"

"Captured. Evie's still unconscious, Loki's in a cell. Everyone is alive, injured but alive." Natasha nodded, downed the drink and then promptly fell asleep again.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

First time she woke up she could hear footsteps, a familiar voice telling her _it's going to be okay_, or _you'll be fine_ and asking her to squeeze her hand. She did as she was told but all she could think was 'Where is Regalis?' before falling back to sleep.

The next time she woke up she winced at the bright light, "JARVIS, turn the light down," she murmured. She heard someone moving and saw the light behind her eyelids die down enough for her to open her eyes. Above her all she could see was a white ceiling that she didn't recognise.

"It's been a while since you last spoke to JARVIS." A voice muttered beside her and Evie jumped in shock, turning her head to see the person behind the voice.

Steve stood beside a chair, wearing jeans and a plaid shirt; he had a bandage across his nose, a cut across his cheek, forehead and lip along with multiple bruises across his entire visible body.

Evie glanced around to see if anyone else was in the room with them - finding it empty she tried to sit up but found her arms and legs were restrained, strapped to the bed.

"Steve." Evie uttered.

"Evelyn." Steve swallowed heavily, "How are you feeling?"

"Where's Loki?" Evie avoided the question.

Steve also avoided her question. "So you remember what happened?"

"Yes. _Where_ is he?"

Steve nodded to himself, "Thought so. He's still alive if that's what you want to know."

Evie smiled at those words, "I wanna see him."

"That's not going to happen."

"Just for a minute?" Evie bargained.

Steve shook his head and sat down, "Oh, and don't bother trying to use your powers. You've been given a small dose of the cure and you're being re-dosed every week until the New Moon." He saw her hands un-tense from around the bindings. "Evie," Steve spoke carefully in a calculated manner taking her hand in his, "Do you even care about what happened? All those deaths you caused... _Sherlock_?"

Evie shrugged uncaringly. "He should have been more careful."

"He was saving _me_ from where _you_ left me to die."

"Actually no," Evie stretched her hand trying to force him to release it, "If we had won we would have kept that place as our base of operations. So technically you weren't left to die, we just didn't want you interfering. The less Avengers the better."

"So what? You were gonna just _keep me_?"

Evie shrugged, "Loki did say something about a slave."

"What about your _babysitter_?" Steve asked coldly, looking her in the eye. Evie almost immediately looked away.

Evie stopped her constant attempt at pulling at the bindings. "What?"

"We know about the baby."

Evie swallowed and looked anywhere but at Steve. "How do you know about that? Irene told you?"

Steve narrowed his eyes, "Irene knows? No, we're in a hospital Evie, how do you _think_ we know?" Steve looked at her though she was stupid (though Evie knew he didn't mean it – he was just unconsciously trying to defend himself).

"What's gonna happen then? Is shield gonna try and abort my baby?"

"No. I'm not gonna let that happen – your body, your rules. But no decisions will be made until the new moon."

Before Evie could reply the door opened, Tony and Irene walked in, "Evie! You're awake! How are you feeling?"

"Like someone tranquilised me and then removed my powers." Evie answered scowling at Tony who just grinned at her bending down to kiss her cheek.

"I missed your sarcasm."

"Sarcasm? That's how I currently feel."

Tony shrugged, "Good enough for me." He glanced back at Irene who stood completely sill by the door. "Well just came to check on your vitals but your awake so I see its all fine. Captain, I need to show you something!"

Steve rose an eyebrow before he glanced back to see Irene and nodded, "Yeah uh..." Steve stood up and bent down to kiss Evie's forehead, "I'll be back later, okay?"

"I'd rather you weren't but whatever."

As both Tony and Steve left the room closing the door behind them and Irene took the seat that Steve had vacated. "Evie." She greeted calmer than she felt.

"Irene." Evie spat.

"You remember that quote, 'love is handing someone a gun and letting it point to your head, believing that they won't pull the trigger.' That was what I did Evie, except I had no idea if you'd pull the trigger or not." Irene swallowed and reached out to take Evie's hand. "You were gonna kill me weren't you?"

Evie shrugged. "If that's what it would take to win then yes, I would have."

"Did our lifelong friendship mean nothing to you? All those times we sat in your back garden giggling over the cute boys in the school, grieving over Jacob together. You're crush on Mycroft before he became our friend and realised he was gay. It meant nothing?"

"It _meant_ enough, past tense. Now all that matters is power."

"More than your baby?"

Evie hesitated, "My baby will be better off as a Prince or Princess."

"That is literally _the_ cheesiest thing I've ever heard you say Evie Rae." Irene shook her head and stared into Evie's eyes seeing absolutely no remorse in them and that broke her heart. "But whatever. You let one of your best friends die and was going to kill another. Daemon or not I can't even look at you right now." with that Irene got up and left the room.

Evie sighed and rested her head back against the pillow - she just wanted to see Loki and know that he was okay.

She laid there for half an hour before finally three people came into the room; they were in full black leather clothes. One was a woman with long blonde hair with brown streaks in it, she had a scar across her left eyebrow. The other two were guys one with black hair the other with red hair. Both looked rough and that they probably wouldn't even care if they broke her neck there and then.

Evie raised her head to see them properly and rose an eyebrow at them, "Hey guys, I need to pee so I'd appreciate being let out to pee. And what happened when I get morning sickness? Gonna leave me here to choke?"

"As tempting as an idea that sounds, we have orders to move you to a more secure facility." Evie rolled her eyes as they all approached her and until the straps around her arms and legs.

Evie lay still knowing that all of these agents could kill her with their pinky finger if they wanted so fighting back whilst powerless and alone won't do any use.

They led her out of the hospital room she had been in, through a corridor and down some stairs, "Shouldn't you blindfold me or something?"

"That would show we're afraid of you escaping. We're not." One shrugged. "Plus, it's unlikely you'll be able to navigate this place without running into someone, if you _did _escape."

Evie laughed, "_Riiiiiight_."

They continued to walk down the twisty corridors and down stairs until finally they reached a corridor and all the way down it was full of large thick looking metal doors, by each door was a glass plate, the one of the guards placed their hand on it and the door opened up, inside Evie could see a bed on one side of the room and a toilet and sink.

"Honeymoon suite I see." Evie murmured.

The man at her left growled in annoyance and suddenly backhanded her across the face. Evie flinched and tried to step back but was stopped by the guy on her right holding her arm. "Shut your sass you bitch." He lifted his hand and brought it forwards but it was stopped by someone grabbing his wrist, he turned to see Steve standing tall and glaring at him.

"Didn't your mother ever teach you not to hit women?"

The guard just yanked his arm from Steve's grip, "She's not a person. She's the reason my uncle is _dead_."

"I'm sorry about your uncle," Steve growled, "But don't you touch her." The guard rolled his eyes but lowered his hand.

"I can take care of myself." Evie spat at Steve pulling her arm from the other guards hand and stormed into her cell, as she walked in the light switched on, she spun around and rose an eyebrow at them all. "Well, you gonna lock me in or what?"


End file.
